AFX.COM | March 16, 2004
The largest labor union in the US, the American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), will file a landmark trade complaint against China on March 16, alleging the country has gained a commercial advantage through violating workers' rights by suppressing strikes, banning independent trade unions and not enforcing minimum wage laws, the New York Times reported.
Timed to maximize pressure on President Bush as the presidential campaign heats up, the complaint asserts that the illegal repression of workers' rights has cost up to 727,000 US factory jobs and given China an average 43 pct cost advantage because they artificially lower the country's production costs and unfairly undercut American companies, the paper said.
AFL-CIO is asking President George W. Bush to impose punitive tariffs of up to 77 pct on China or to elicit a pledge to halt all such violations.
The complaint comes as China's Vice-Premier Wu Yi prepares to visit the US next month to discuss trade and commercial conflicts between the two countries.
"This will put the onus on the Bush administration to explain that China is not repressing worker's rights, and to me that is an extraordinarily difficult case to make," James Mann, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was quoted as saying.
"The record going back for decades is that China has intensely resisted independent trade unions, and I don't see how the administration can pretend otherwise."
This is the first case ever brought under the Trade Act of 1974 that seeks penalties over violations of workers' rights, the paper said.
G. Hamilton Loeb, a lawyer who often represents China, said the complaint would fail because global trade rules do not protect workers' rights.
"China takes its World Trade Organization commitments very seriously, but the WTO standards do not extend into these labor issues," Loeb said.
President Bush will have 45 days to decide whether to let the complaint proceed. If he lets it go forward, the International Trade Commission will have a year to rule on it.AFX.COM:
