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103D CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 4271

To provide for the establishment in the General Agreement on Tariffs and

Trade of a working party on trade and worker rights and labor standards, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

APRIL 20, 1994

Mr. VISCLOSKY (for himself, Mr. BROWN of California, Mr. ABERCROMBIE,

Mr. ANDREWS of Maine, Mr. APPLEGATE, Mrs. BENTLEY, Mr. BERMAN,

Mr. BONIOR, Mr. BORSKI, Ms. BROWN of Florida, Mr. BROWN of Ohio,

Miss COLLINS of Michigan, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. ENGEL,

Mr. EVANS, Mr. FARR of California, Mr. FINGERHUT, Mr. FROST, Mr.

HOCHBRUECKNER, Mr. HOLDEN, Mr. JACOBS, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE

JOHNSON of Texas, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. KLECZKA, Mr. KLINK, Mr. LAFALCE, Mr. LAROCCO, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mrs. LOWEY, Mr. MARTINEZ, Mr.

MCCLOSKEY, Mr. MCHUGH, Mr. MILLER of California, Mrs. MINK, Mr.

MOLLOHAN, Mr. MURTHA, Mr. NADLER, Mr. OLVER, Mr. OWENS, Mr.

PALLONE, Mr. RAHALL, Mr. REGULA, Mr. REYNOLDS, Mr. SABO, Mr.

SANDERS, Mr. SAWYER, Ms. SHEPHERD, Mr. STOKES, Mr. TORRES, Ms.

VELA ́ZQUEZ, Mr. VENTO, Mr. WILLIAMS, and Mr. YATES) introduced the

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

A BILL

To provide for the establishment in the General Agreement

on Tariffs and Trade of a working party on trade and

worker rights and labor standards, and for other

purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Worker Rights and

3 Labor Standards Trade Act of 1994’’.

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

5 The Congress makes the following findings:

6 (1) International trade, when fair and open, can

7 serve as an important factor in the economic well8 being of nations; but the maintenance of a fair and

9 open world trading system requires the enhancement

10 and active enforcement of national and international

11 trade agreements and laws by all trading nations.

12 (2) As the productivity of our trading partners

13 that are developing countries has risen, the ability of

14 many of these countries to export goods cheaply to

15 the United States has been based, in part, upon the

16 violation of internationally recognized worker rights.

17 (3) The exploitation of workers is an unaccept18 able means for any country, whether developed or

19 developing, or industry to gain competitive advan20 tage in international trade.

21 (4) Exports to the United States from countries

22 which fail to respect internationally recognized work23 er rights undermine living and working standards in

24 both those countries as well as the United States,

25 because international corporations can play workers

26 in one country off against those in another with re-
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1 spect to wages and work standards in order to mini2 mize costs.

3 (5) At various times in the 20th century, inter4 national agreements and United States policy have

5 explicitly stated that fundamental worker rights and

6 fair labor standards are necessary to the workings of

7 a fair international trading system.

8 (6) The United States and over 160 other

9 member nations of the International Labor Organi10 zation are legally obligated to ‘‘endeavor to secure

11 and maintain fair and humane conditions of labor

12 for men, women, and children, both in their own

13 countries and in all countries to which their commer14 cial and industrial nations extend’’.

15 (7) For decades, United States trade nego16 tiators, whether serving in Democratic or Republican

17 administrations, have initiated discussions to no

18 avail with ranking officials of the GATT and the

19 International Labor Organization concerning the de20 monstrable relationship of fundamental worker

21 rights and fair labor standards to prior rounds of

22 multilateral trade negotiations.

23 (8) The right of all workers to certain fun24 damental rights is affirmed in the following inter-
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1 national agreements to which the United States is a

2 party:

3 (A) The United Nations Charter, which

4 states in Article 55 that ‘‘the United Nations

5 shall promote higher standards of living, full

6 employment, and conditions of economic and so7 cial progress and development,’’.

8 (B) The United Nations Universal Dec9 laration of Human Rights, which states in Arti10 cle 23 that ‘‘Everyone has the right to work, to

11 free choice of employment, to just and favorable

12 conditions of work and to protection against

13 unemployment . . . ‘and that’ Everyone who

14 works has the right to just and favorable remu15 neration ensuring for himself and his family an

16 existence worthy of human dignity.’’.

17 (C) The United Nations International Cov18 enant on Civil and Political Rights, which states

19 in Article 8 that ‘‘No one shall be required to

20 perform forced or compulsory labor.’’.

21 (D) The Revised Charter of the Organiza22 tion of American States, which states in Article

23 31 that ‘‘Member States agree to dedicate every

24 effort to achieve the following basic goals . . .
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1 Fair wages, employment opportunities, and ac2 ceptable working conditions for all.’’.

3 (E) The General Agreement on Tariffs and

4 Trade which—

5 (i) provides in the preamble that rela6 tions among countries ‘‘in the field of

7 trade and economic endeavor should be

8 conducted with a view to raising standards

9 of living and ensuring full employment,’’;

10 (ii) allows, under Article XX, any

11 country to take action against products of

12 prison labor; and

13 (iii) incorporates by reference Article

14 7 of Chapter II of the Havana Charter

15 which states that ‘‘the members recognize

16 that measures relating to employment

17 must take fully into account the rights of

18 workers under intergovernmental declara19 tions, conventions, and agreements. The

20 members recognize that all countries have

21 a common interest in the achievement and

22 maintenance of fair labor standards related

23 to productivity, and thus in the improve24 ment of wages and working conditions as

25 productivity may permit. The members
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1 recognize that unfair labor conditions, par2 ticularly in production for export, create

3 difficulties in international trade, and ac4 cordingly, each member shall take what5 ever action may be appropriate and fea6 sible to eliminate such conditions within its

7 territory.’’.

8 (9) The adherence of the United States to the

9 principles referred to in paragraph (5) is reflected

10 in—

11 (A) the provisions of the Tariff Act of

12 1930 that prohibit the importation of goods

13 produced by forced labor,

14 (B) the provisions of title V of the Trade

15 Act of 1974 (relating to the Generalized System

16 of Preferences) that—

17 (i) define internationally recognized

18 worker rights as the right to association,

19 the right to organize and bargain collec20 tively, the prohibition of the use of any

21 form of forced or compulsory labor, a mini22 mum age for the employment of children,

23 and acceptable conditions of work with re24 spect to minimum wages, hours of work,

25 and occupational safety and health; and
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1 (ii) prohibit the extension of trade

2 preferences to any developing country that

3 ‘‘has not or is not taking steps to afford

4 internationally recognized worker rights to

5 its workers’’; and

6 (C) the provisions of section 231A of the

7 Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which allow

8 the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to

9 insure, reinsure, guarantee, or finance a project

10 only if the country in which the project is to be

11 undertaken ‘‘is taking steps to adopt and imple12 ment laws that extend internationally recog13 nized worker rights . . . to workers in that

14 country.’’.

15 (10) Little, if any, progress has been made ‘‘to

16 adopt, as a principle of the GATT, that the denial

17 of worker rights should not be a means for a coun18 try or its industries to gain competitive advantage in

19 international trade’’, pursuant to section

20 1101(b)(14) of the Omnibus Trade and Competitive21 ness Act of 1988.

22 SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF WORKING PARTY ON WORKER

23 RIGHTS.

24 (a) ACTION BY THE PRESIDENT.—The President

25 shall seek the establishment in the GATT of a working
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1 party to examine the relationship of fundamental inter2 nationally recognized worker rights to the articles, objec3 tives, and related instruments of the GATT, particularly

4 the preamble, Article XXIX, and Article XX.

5 (b) OBJECTIVES OF WORKING GROUP.—The objec6 tives of the working group described in subsection (a)

7 would be to—

8 (1) explore ways in which to link the conduct of

9 international trade to respect for fundamental inter10 nationally recognized worker rights;

11 (2) examine the economic impact of competition

12 that is based upon trade distortions that are attrib13 utable to the systematic denial of fundamental inter14 nationally recognized worker rights;

15 (3) consider and develop information on the in16 cidence and effects of systematic, trade-distorting

17 worker rights practices and ways to address such

18 practices; and

19 (4) establish that it is unjustifiable for any

20 country or any of its industries to seek to gain com21 petitive advantage in international trade through the

22 systematic denial of fundamental internationally rec23 ognized worker rights.
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1 SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF STANDING COMMITTEE ON

2 WORKER RIGHTS WITHIN THE WORLD TRADE

3 ORGANIZATION.

4 The President shall seek the establishment in the

5 World Trade Organization, when such organization be6 comes effective, a standing committee to carry out the

7 functions of the working group described in section 3.

8 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

9 As used in this Act:

10 (1) The term ‘‘fundamental internationally rec11 ognized worker rights’’ means ‘‘internationally rec12 ognized worker rights’’ as defined in section

13 502(a)(4) of the Trade Act of 1974.

14 (2) GATT.—The term ‘‘GATT’’ means the

15 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

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