See also:
> International Labour Organization (ILO)

Background explanations  back to top

• Labour standards: consensus, coherence and controversy
  A brief factual account, in the WTO guide “Understanding the WTO”

The official position  back to top

• The 1996 Singapore Ministerial Declaration
  The paragraph on labour standards
    
• The 2001 Doha Ministerial Declaration
  The paragraph reaffirming the Singapore Declaration

The debate over the years  back to top

Director-Generals’ speeches

• 9 September 2003. ‘Making globalization work for people’, DG Supachai Panitchpakdi, to ICFTU at Cancún Ministerial Conference   
  
• 28 November 1999. ‘Labour issues is “false debate” obscuring underlying consensus’, DG Mike Moore to ICFTU at Seattle Ministerial Conference
    
• 11 June 1998. Singapore Conference produced ‘a clear and strong consensus’, DG Renato Ruggiero’s speech to Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Hamburg
    
• 18 September 1996. Speech to EU trade ministers in Dublin

Ministerial Conferences

• 2001 Doha:
  > Background briefing note (“A difficult issue for many WTO member governments”)
  > News summary 11 November (“China to join on 11 December, Chinese Taipei’s membership also approved”)
    
• 1999 Seattle:
  > Background briefing note (“Subject of intense debate”)
  > Excerpt 1 from book “Seattle: what’s at stake”) Concerns and responses — The WTO is only concerned with free trade/WTO rules and liberalization destroy jobs, depress wages and ignore workers’ rights
  > Excerpt 2 from book “Seattle: what’s at stake”) Marrakesh to Seattle and what’s ahead — Development challenges in trade and trade policy
  > ‘The WTO tramples over labour and human rights’ from Criticism, yes … misinformation, no!
  > News summary 2 December (“Ministers consider new and revised texts”)
    
• 1996 Singapore
  > Background briefing note (“Trade and labour standards”)

Research  back to top

• August 2003. Is trade liberalization a window of opportunity for women?
  WTO working paper, Hildegun Kyvik Nordås
    
• November 2000. International trade and the position of European low-skilled labour
  WTO working paper, Marion Jansen
    
• September 1996. Labour force growth, trade, and wages
  WTO working paper, Joseph F. Francois

Collaboration between ILO and WTO Secretariats

The WTO Secretariat attends sessions of the ILO Governing Body as observer and also routinely participates in meetings of the Governing Body's Working Party on the Social Dimension of Globalization. At different times, WTO participation has been at head-of-agency level: Mr. Lamy addressed the Working Party on 26 March 2007 concerning the WTO/ILO joint study, and former Director-General, Mr. Mike Moore, similarly participated in a Working Party session on 18 March 2002, where the Working Party had before it a paper submitted earlier by the WTO Secretariat on the topic “Trade Liberalization and Employment”.

Further collaboration has occurred in the context of work undertaken between 2002-2004 by the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization (an initiative of the ILO that brought together 26 eminent personalities to look at the different facets of globalization); former Director-General, Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, met with the Commission on 14 October 2002.

As well, the WTO Secretariat participates in follow-up mechanisms to the World Commission, including attendance at meetings of the ILO's Policy Coherence Initiative. In the last few years, the WTO Secretariat has on several occasions also attended conferences and seminars organized by the ILO, when issues of relevance to the WTO were discussed.
 

Documents  back to top

International Labour Organization (ILO)   back to top

The ILO is the UN specialized agency which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights.

ILO links

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