Brussels, 15 July 2008 : The ITUC remains deeply concerned
that new proposals in the "NAMA" negotiations on industrial products at
the World Trade Organisation (WTO), made in an attempt to get closer to
a Doha agreement at a key ministerial gathering in Geneva next week,
contain only minor improvements and are still seriously imbalanced.

"Unless a real shift is made to a lower level of tariff cuts for
developing countries, the NAMA negotiations are not going to deliver a
positive outcome for their workers," said ITUC General Secretary Guy
Ryder. "The Doha Development Round is supposed to foster industrial
development in developing countries, enabling them to increase decent
work and diversify their economies. Yet on their current basis, the
NAMA negotiations will lead to job cuts and severely hamper governments
in providing decent work and productive jobs in the future as well."

The proposals include a somewhat wider range of tariff reductions for
developing countries, but their options remain limited. Although it
looks like a much higher "coefficient" can be used, in reality this
difference means little in terms of tariff cuts, which will remain very
high for many developing countries. The text does provide some
flexibilities to shield products from tariff cuts, but again these are
limited and will not provide much protection for many labour intensive
industries.

The ITUC continues to insist that no trade-offs should be made between
NAMA and Agriculture, as both are crucial for development.
Unfortunately the negotiations do not seem to take into account these
development realities.

Many ITUC affiliates, including from Latin American countries, the NAMA
11 countries, European countries and Japan, have already requested their
governments to ensure that NAMA negotiations do not lead to unemployment
or prevent countries from developing their industries. The ITUC has
sent a model letter to its affiliates to help them in lobbying their
Ministers of Trade

"In the light of continuing pressure on workers’ wages, bargaining power
and working conditions due to any increase in competition worldwide with
further liberalisation of trade," concluded Ryder, "the ITUC must
question who the ultimate beneficiaries of these trade agreements will
be. The proposals on the table will do nothing to turn this sorry state
of affairs around but instead will further increase pressure on workers
worldwide."

The ITUC represents 168 million workers in 155 countries and territories
and has 311 national affiliates.

For more information, please contact the ITUC Press Department on: +32 2224 0204 or +32 476 621 018.