The World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks held in Seattle from 30 November to 3 December 1999 ultimately resulted in failure to make any progress on the contents of the next round of global trade negotiations. One of the main causes of dissent amongst the participants was the issue of including labour standards in international trade agreements.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference brought together delegates from 135 countries in Seattle on 30 November to 3 December 1999 in order to debate ways in which world trade could be further liberalised, within the framework of a planned "millennium round" of talks.
The issue of including core labour standards - for example, bans on child and forced labour and guarantees of trade union rights such as the rights to bargain collectively and associate freely - in international trade agreements was a key topic of discussion and ultimately one upon which the participants could not agree. Two of the main economic powers at the conference, the European Union (EU) and the USA, both put forward proposals for the future development of the labour standards issue. The EU proposal advocates setting up a joint WTO and International Labour Organisation (ILO) forum with a remit to establish a dialogue involving all interested parties on the issue of the relationship between trade and labour standards. The US proposal focuses on setting up a more specific dedicated WTO working group on trade and labour, with the aim of producing a report for WTO member countries to examine at the next ministerial conference in 2001.
However, no consensus could be reached during the Seattle talks on either of these proposals, with the main opposition coming from developing countries. In general, developing countries are opposed to the discussion of core labour standards by the WTO, believing that the more developed countries have a protectionist interest in removing the comparative advantage of lower-wage countries. They argue that the way forward is not to enforce labour standards through the WTO, as sanctions applied to developing countries for breach of such standards would merely increase their poverty, rather than help them to achieve the economic growth which they believe is the only way to raise labour standards in the longer term.
The failure to agree on the labour standards issue was part of a wider failure to agree at the Seattle conference. The WTO will now consult with its member countries on what to do next, with a decision due in early 2000. No date has been set for further talks, and commentators note that it is unlikely that any significant progress will be made before the US presidential election, which is set for November 2000.