The ACTU joins the ITUC, Global Union Federations, as well as other national and international unions and organisations in calling for fundamental reform of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The letter, published by Public Citizen, highlights the need for an international trading system fit for the 21st century that puts people and the planet floor, stating:
“As we predicted back in 1995, the WTO has functioned to establish rules for the world economy that mainly benefit large transnational corporations at the expense of national and local economies, workers, farmers and indigenous peoples, our health and safety, and the environment. Without a labour protection floor, a race to the bottom has repressed wage growth and increased precarious work. The climate, biodiversity, and poverty crises have been ignored, the needed solutions constrained by “trade” rules. So has the documented rise in inequality within and between nations, as governments have been stripped of essential tools to pursue the wellbeing of their peoples and address the negative impacts of hyper-globalisation.”
Read the letter here.
