World’s poor see few job benefits from trade boom

The boom in global trade over the last two decades has not improved
the quality of most jobs in poorer countries, the World Trade
Organisation and United Nations labour agency said on Monday.
Their joint report, whose conclusions may make a new global free trade
pact even harder to swallow for some, found most workers in
developing countries continue to face low incomes and limited job
security, even in sectors tied to exports.    While international
trade grew to represent more than 60 per cent of global gross
domestic product in 2007, from less than 30 per cent in the
mid-1980s, the number of informal workers has stayed constant or even
grown in poorer states.    'Strong growth in the global economy has
not, so far, led to a corresponding improvement in working
conditions and living standards for many,' the Geneva-based
organisations said.    Informal workers in areas like construction,
agriculture and mining generally do not pay tax and lack access to
benefits such as disability insurance or pensions. They remain as
vulnerable now as before the trade boom, the report said.    'Even in
the formal economy, a growing proportion of workers is undeclared or
works under precarious conditions,' the WTO's Pascal Lamy and ILO
chief Juan Somavia said in the report.    'These outcomes are likely
to worsen as a result of the global financial crisis,' they said.
The WTO's 153 member governments have worked for eight years to
clinch a new 'Doha Round' trade accord, which would open up global
markets to goods and services by slashing duties and other penalties
charged at borders.    That agreement, whose negotiations began in
Qatar in 2001, would also reduce the subsidies countries pay to
shield their farmers and factory workers from outside competition.
But top economies including India, China, the European Union and the
United States, have been reticent to do so, putting the agreement—
which requires full consensus—out of reach.    Monday's report
acknowledges the growth that followed previous WTO trade rounds and
various bilateral and regional accords had principally benefited
skilled workers, with little gains for physical labourers.    The ILO
and WTO concluded that further liberalisation of global trade has the
potential to yield long-term labour market benefits and suggested
that future trade reforms 'can be implemented in an
employment-friendly way.'