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From: Hazards Campaign Charter
Section:
Globalisation and the World Trade Organisation
Resist attempts at blackmail by the WTO
Support the inclusion of social clauses in trade agreements
Compensation action against a parent transnational must be made
easier
UK-based transnationals to implement UK health, safety and welfare
standards
Ratify all ILO conventions on occupational health & safety
Free market economics have led to world economy and trade being
dominated by transnational corporations based in the rich North.
This has led to the process of globalisation of production and has
been accompanied by a decline in regulatory standards. The World
Trade Organisation (WTO), established to ensure free trade comes
before worker and consumer protection, is increasingly being used
to rule on trade disputes in favour of large corporations. For example,
Canada is taking a complaint against France to the WTO, to prevent
the French ban on white asbestos. WTO rulings take no account of
health, safety, welfare and environmental issues.
The Hazards Campaign calls on the government to resist attempts
at blackmail by the WTO and to support the inclusion of social clauses
into trade agreements and in the inducements it offers international
capital to encourage investment in the UK.
We demand that the government recognises that action in the civil
courts for compensation against a parent transnational is an essential
means of control, and legislates to make this easier. We demand
that the government requires UK-based transnationals to implement
as a minimum, UK health, safety and welfare standards when they
operate in countries which have lower standards than the UK. We
call on the government to ratify all ILO conventions on Occupational
Health & Safety, including those which attempt to set basic
standards for some of the most exploited workers of the world -
children and homeworkers.
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