Conclusion: Towards Transnational Solidarity on ‘Free Trade’ Policy?

Abstract

In the conclusion to this special issue we suggest that the demand for national policy space is the fundamental demand around which labour movements in the Global South and North can rally. Additional joint demands for a re-embedded trade regime could be regulation of global finance, food sovereignty, national resource sovereignty, sovereignty over labour market regulation, as well as democratic decision-making on trade policy.

في خلاصة هذا العدد الخاص من المجلة، يرى الكُتَّاب أن مطلب إتاحة المجال لرسم السياسات على الصعيد الوطني يُعد مطلباً أساسياً يمكن أن تلتف حوله الحركات العمالية في بلدان الجنوب والشمال. وهناك مطالب إضافية مرتبطة بهذا المطلب من أجلنظام محكم للتجارة، ومن بينها تنظيم الشؤون المالية على المستوى العالمي، والسيادة على الغذاء، والسيادة على الموارد الوطنية، والسيادة على تنظيم سوق العمل، بالإضافة إلى صناعة القرار بشكل ديمقراطي فيما يتعلق بسياسات التجارة.

요약문

특별 호 결론에서 우리는 국가 정책 요구가 남반구와 북반구 노동운동이 함께 모일 수 있는 근본적인 요구라는 점을 제안한다. 다시 추가적으로 무역체제의 변화를 요구하는 것들은 무역정책에 대한 민주적 의사결정과 더불어 지구적 금융 규제, 식량주권, 국가자원주권, 노동시장규제에 대한 주권이 될 수 있다.

RESUMEN

En la conclusión de esta edición especial, sugerimos que la demanda por el espacio de la política nacional, es la demanda fundamental alrededor de la cual los movimientos laborales en los hemisferios sur y norte, pueden unir esfuerzos. Las demandas conjuntas adicionales para un régimen de comercio incorporado, podrían ser una regulación de las finanzas globales, la soberanía alimentaria, la soberanía de los recursos nacionales, la soberanía sobre la regulación del mercado laboral, como también como una toma de decisión democrática sobre la política comercial.

Keywords:

• national policy space
• financial market regulation
• food sovereignty
• re-embedded trade regime
• resource sovereignty

Notes

1 So-called investor-state dispute settlement provisions already enable private investors to challenge public authorities directly at international tribunals, whenever they find that laws in the area of public health, consumer, environmental, or social protection interfere with their profits. This power, traditionally offered to ‘protect private investors’ and their investments in the Global South, and already existing in the NAFTA, could be introduced also in the EU–Canada trade agreement and is on the table of the EU–US trade deal (http://corporateeurope.org/trade/2013/07/unravelling-spin-guide-corporate-rights-eu-us-trade-deal). Interestingly the ETUC opposes the inclusion of an investor-state dispute settlement in the FTAs with Canada and the US: ‘Considering that both parties are advanced economies with well-developed legal systems, the ETUC sees no reason to create a by-pass to national courts for foreign investors’ (http://www.etuc.org/a/11228). Would it be acceptable vis-à-vis countries from the Global South?

Additional information

Andreas Bieler is Professor of Political Economy and Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) in the School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham, UK. He is author of The Struggle for a Social Europe: Trade Unions and EMU in Times of Global Restructuring (Manchester University Press, 2006) and co-editor (with Ingemar Lindberg) of Global Restructuring, Labour and the Challenges for Transnational Solidarity (Routledge, 2010). His personal website is http://andreasbieler.net and he maintains a blog on trade unions and global restructuring at http://andreasbieler.blogspot.co.uk.

Bruno Ciccaglione is an economist and trade activist.

John Hilary is Executive Director of War on Want and Honorary Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham. He is the author of numerous reports and articles on international trade policy and its impacts, and of The Poverty of Capitalism: Economic Meltdown and the Struggle for What Comes Next (Pluto Press, 2013).

Ingemar Lindberg is a former researcher and social policy adviser to the Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO). He has written a number of books and articles on labour and globalisation.