The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has been sharply critical of new proposals in world trade talks on manufactured goods. The new modalities, put on the table yesterday at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by the chair of the "NAMA" negotiations, ignore the numerous concerns that the ITUC and many of its affiliates have expressed on NAMA over the past couple of years.
"We cannot support a trade deal that systematically ignores the interests of workers worldwide and undermines the developmental needs of developing countries", says Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the ITUC.
"We need to see a balanced outcome of the negotiations that advances development in developing countries, whereas this proposal will simply aggravate existing imbalances."
The proposals for a "coefficient" for developing countries of between 19 and 23 will have serious impacts on employment and industrial development in a large number of developing countries at a moment when the creation of decent work poses a major challenge.
A coefficient of around 20 will lead to average tariff cuts of around 60% for developing countries and will bring maximum tariff levels for all tariff lines down to levels of around 12%, a level so low as to undermine prospects for industrialisation and diversification in many developing country economies.
Previous simulations by the ITUC have shown that such low coefficients will lead to substantial cuts in applied tariff rates in developing countries that will further increase already high unemployment and underemployment levels.
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