Home / General / The Problems with the Trans Pacific Partnership

The Problems with the Trans Pacific Partnership

/
/
/
1009 Views

WikiLeaks_TPP_IP2_cartoon

Last week, the New York Times editorial board nailed the fundamental problem with the Trans Pacific Partnership on labor issues:

Obama administration officials say the T.P.P. goes further on labor standards than those earlier pacts. For example, the T.P.P.’s labor chapter requires all 12 countries to adopt minimum wage, working hour and occupational safety regulations. That is an improvement, but it could turn out to be mostly symbolic because the agreement does not specify how countries should set minimum wages. Nor does it establish any minimum standard for safety regulations.

Experts say the most important labor provisions are found in side agreements the Obama administration reached with Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei individually to address specific problems like barriers to union organizing and the treatment of immigrant workers from countries like Myanmar. These countries will have to change their labor laws in specific ways before they are allowed to export goods duty-free to the United States.

The agreement with Vietnam, a country run by a communist government, would require that workers be permitted to form independent unions that are not affiliated with the Communist Party and would have the right to bargain collectively and to strike. This should help workers who have been exploited to demand better pay and better working conditions.

American labor leaders are unconvinced these side deals and the labor provisions that apply to all countries will sufficiently improve union power. They have long worried that trade encourages a race to the bottom, hurting American workers. But offshoring to developing countries has been going on for years, and the T.P.P. is unlikely to change that. Labor leaders rightly point out that even under the pact, the Vietnamese government does not have to let new unions form federations to represent workers at the national level for up to five years after the agreement becomes effective, which is expected to happen in 2017 if it’s ratified by Congress.

By far the biggest concern, aside from the particulars of the side deals, is whether President Obama’s successor will actively enforce the T.P.P.’s provisions. The Obama administration has been slow to bring significant cases against countries like Guatemala when they violate existing trade agreements.

In 2008, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and Guatemalan workers’ organizations filed a complaint against the Guatemalan government for failure to enforce its own labor laws, as mandated by the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement. After years of negotiations with Guatemala, the Obama administration took that case to arbitration last year to force the country to prosecute abusive employers and make it easier for workers to form unions.

And let’s point out that while I’m glad Obama took the Guatemalan case to arbitration, this has been going on for 7 years now before even reaching this step which in itself does nothing for Guatemalan workers. A process this glacial is not one that is useful for workers. If this is the best we can do within these trade agreements, then the trade agreements are the enemy of workers in the developing world. Many of these workers know this, which is why they oppose the TPP. Without an independent enforcement power that workers themselves can access, without real and delineated punishments for nations who violate the labor provisions of trade agreements, and without consequences for wealthy nation companies who are complicit in these violations, these agreements simply will not work in workers’ favor.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
This div height required for enabling the sticky sidebar
Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views :