I
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 stand-
ards, 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. LA-
FALCE, 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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Worker Rights and
Labor Standards Trade Act of 1994’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) International trade, when fair and open, can
serve as an important factor in the economic well-
being of nations; but the maintenance of a fair and
open world trading system requires the enhancement
and active enforcement of national and international
trade agreements and laws by all trading nations.
(2) As the productivity of our trading partners
that are developing countries has risen, the ability of
many of these countries to export goods cheaply to
the United States has been based, in part, upon the
violation of internationally recognized worker rights.
(3) The exploitation of workers is an unaccept-
able means for any country, whether developed or
developing, or industry to gain competitive advan-
tage in international trade.
(4) Exports to the United States from countries
which fail to respect internationally recognized work-
er rights undermine living and working standards in
both those countries as well as the United States,
because international corporations can play workers
in one country off against those in another with re-
spect to wages and work standards in order to mini-
mize costs.
(5) At various times in the 20th century, inter-
national agreements and United States policy have
explicitly stated that fundamental worker rights and
fair labor standards are necessary to the workings of
a fair international trading system.
(6) The United States and over 160 other
member nations of the International Labor Organi-
zation are legally obligated to ‘‘endeavor to secure
and maintain fair and humane conditions of labor
for men, women, and children, both in their own
countries and in all countries to which their commer-
cial and industrial nations extend’’.
(7) For decades, United States trade nego-
tiators, whether serving in Democratic or Republican
administrations, have initiated discussions to no
avail with ranking officials of the GATT and the
International Labor Organization concerning the de-
monstrable relationship of fundamental worker
rights and fair labor standards to prior rounds of
multilateral trade negotiations.
(8) The right of all workers to certain fun-
damental rights is affirmed in the following inter-
national agreements to which the United States is a
party:
(A) The United Nations Charter, which
states in Article 55 that ‘‘the United Nations
shall promote higher standards of living, full
employment, and conditions of economic and so-
cial progress and development,’’.
(B) The United Nations Universal Dec-
laration of Human Rights, which states in Arti-
cle 23 that ‘‘Everyone has the right to work, to
free choice of employment, to just and favorable
conditions of work and to protection against
unemployment . . . ‘and that’ Everyone who
works has the right to just and favorable remu-
neration ensuring for himself and his family an
existence worthy of human dignity.’’.
(C) The United Nations International Cov-
enant on Civil and Political Rights, which states
in Article 8 that ‘‘No one shall be required to
perform forced or compulsory labor.’’.
(D) The Revised Charter of the Organiza-
tion of American States, which states in Article
31 that ‘‘Member States agree to dedicate every
effort to achieve the following basic goals . . .
Fair wages, employment opportunities, and ac-
ceptable working conditions for all.’’.
(E) The General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade which—
(i) provides in the preamble that rela-
tions among countries ‘‘in the field of
trade and economic endeavor should be
conducted with a view to raising standards
of living and ensuring full employment,’’;
(ii) allows, under Article XX, any
country to take action against products of
prison labor; and
(iii) incorporates by reference Article
7 of Chapter II of the Havana Charter
which states that ‘‘the members recognize
that measures relating to employment
must take fully into account the rights of
workers under intergovernmental declara-
tions, conventions, and agreements. The
members recognize that all countries have
a common interest in the achievement and
maintenance of fair labor standards related
to productivity, and thus in the improve-
ment of wages and working conditions as
productivity may permit. The members
recognize that unfair labor conditions, par-
ticularly in production for export, create
difficulties in international trade, and ac-
cordingly, each member shall take what-
ever action may be appropriate and fea-
sible to eliminate such conditions within its
territory.’’.
(9) The adherence of the United States to the
principles referred to in paragraph (5) is reflected
in—
(A) the provisions of the Tariff Act of
1930 that prohibit the importation of goods
produced by forced labor,
(B) the provisions of title V of the Trade
Act of 1974 (relating to the Generalized System
of Preferences) that—
(i) define internationally recognized
worker rights as the right to association,
the right to organize and bargain collec-
tively, the prohibition of the use of any
form of forced or compulsory labor, a mini-
mum age for the employment of children,
and acceptable conditions of work with re-
spect to minimum wages, hours of work,
and occupational safety and health; and
(ii) prohibit the extension of trade
preferences to any developing country that
‘‘has not or is not taking steps to afford
internationally recognized worker rights to
its workers’’; and
(C) the provisions of section 231A of the
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which allow
the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to
insure, reinsure, guarantee, or finance a project
only if the country in which the project is to be
undertaken ‘‘is taking steps to adopt and imple-
ment laws that extend internationally recog-
nized worker rights . . . to workers in that
country.’’.
(10) Little, if any, progress has been made ‘‘to
adopt, as a principle of the GATT, that the denial
of worker rights should not be a means for a coun-
try or its industries to gain competitive advantage in
international 
trade’’, 
pursuant 
to 
section
1101(b)(14) of the Omnibus Trade and Competitive-
ness Act of 1988.
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF WORKING PARTY ON WORKER
RIGHTS.
(a) ACTION
BY
THE PRESIDENT.—The President
shall seek the establishment in the GATT of a working
party to examine the relationship of fundamental inter-
nationally recognized worker rights to the articles, objec-
tives, and related instruments of the GATT, particularly
the preamble, Article XXIX, and Article XX.
(b) OBJECTIVES OF WORKING GROUP.—The objec-
tives of the working group described in subsection (a)
would be to—
(1) explore ways in which to link the conduct of
international trade to respect for fundamental inter-
nationally recognized worker rights;
(2) examine the economic impact of competition
that is based upon trade distortions that are attrib-
utable to the systematic denial of fundamental inter-
nationally recognized worker rights;
(3) consider and develop information on the in-
cidence and effects of systematic, trade-distorting
worker rights practices and ways to address such
practices; and
(4) establish that it is unjustifiable for any
country or any of its industries to seek to gain com-
petitive advantage in international trade through the
systematic denial of fundamental internationally rec-
ognized worker rights.