----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Perelman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Do any of you know about the trade pact with Jordon? The NY Times says
>that labor approved.
Well, the accord apparently includes a guarantee by Jordan to respect the
core ILO labor protections of the right to organize along with some
environmental standards - the first time any trade agreement has included
substantive labor and environmental standards. It is a pretty big
ideological shift from past trade pacts and a result no doubt of the
Seattle-DC-Prague pressures of activists.
Upholding ILO organizing principles is exactly the demand of the ICFTU
globally for trade pacts, since the focus is then on the right of workers in
any country to make their own demands for labor standards, rather than on
the US making substantive wage or cost demands that could be a form of
quasi-protectionism.
-- Nathan Newman
