Oddly, that growth has occurred in part because of US diplomatic cold-shouldering of Burma. No agreement has been negotiated on a bilateral quota for apparel, like the ones the United States has agreed on with most other developing countries. Manufacturers from China and elsewhere have set up shop in Burma specifically to exploit the loophole. The labour organisation's fruitless effort to take a strong stand against Burma has shed a harsh light on its lack of enforcement power. At the March meeting of the organisation's governing body, US officials worried publicly about its ineffectiveness.
Details have yet to be negotiated.
The Bush administration has said it opposes the direct linking of trade issues and worker safeguards. In April, the White House said it would review a free-trade pact that the Clinton administration concluded last year with Jordan that included labour standards provisions, the first such pact to do so. Many developing nations prefer to leave the issue of labour standards to the labour organisation, while trade unions and workers' rights activists want the World Trade Organisation to have jurisdiction, because the trade group's dispute-settlement system has the power to authorise trade sanctions. Some in Washington would like to force the issue by enacting a ban on textile imports from Burma, which would probably provoke a complaint to the World Trade Organisation. In late May, Tom Harkin introduced such a bill in the Senate.