Developed country support for the U.S. position on a working party in the WTO has varied. Belgium, France, and Norway have consistently proposed similar WTO agendas. Germany under the Christian Democrats has been unhelpful, and the United Kingdom was not enthusiastic about any EU proposal at the Seattle ministerial conference regarding WTO involvement in labor standards. Developing country opposition to U.S. proposals is more unified and is reinforced by strong legal arguments to the effect that the WTO does not have the competence to deal with labor standards. Its rules aim to discipline the use of trade measures and reduce barriers to trade.
Member states are free to conduct their domestic policies in whatever way they see fit.
To introduce judgments about member countries' domestic policy choices into the WTO would fundamentally change the legal nature of the agreements. In this regard, Article XX refers to the protection of conditions in the importing country. Introducing labor standards would undermine existing rights, most notably negotiated rights to market access, without introducing reciprocal obligations. Developing countries have also thus far succeeded in staunching the establishment of a working group on labor standards by claiming that it is motivated by protectionist demands in the United States. Developing countries, especially the least developed, who see their low labor costs as essential to their export competitiveness, give considerable credibility to this charge.