Social Justice: The Link between Trade Liberalisation and Sub-Saharan Africa's Potential to Achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015
| Author | Ben Chigara |
| Published date | 01 March 2008 |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410802600102 |
| Date | 01 March 2008 |
| Subject Matter | Part A: Article |
Netherlands Q uarterly of Human R ights, Vol. 26/1, 9–42, 2008 .
© Netherlands I nstitute of Human Rig hts (SIM), Printed in the Net herlands. 9
PART A: ARTICLES
SOCIAL JUSTICE: THE LINK BETWEEN
TRADE LIBERALISATION AND
SUBSAHARAN AFRICA’S POTENTIAL
TO ACHIEVE THE UNITED NATIONS
MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS BY 2015
B C*
e state is like the human body.
Not all of its functions are dignied .
Anatole France (1893)
Abstract
e possible impact of the unintended wor st possible eects of the current multilateral
WTO sponsored trade liberalisation project on Sub-Saharan Africa’s potential to realise
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the target date of 2015 is examined. e
article shows that the WTO’s current approach to trade liberalisati on is nurturing and
strengthening economic in equalities between and within economic region s of the world
and also between and within States themselves w ithout taking any steps to mitigate this
diculty. e article recommends the integration of ILO and WTO dyna mics to ensure
human development oriented wealth maximisation under the WTO trade liberalisation
regime. In this sense the ILO woul d become the broker and insurer of e quality in the
dignity of labour between Sub-Saharan African workers and other workers of the world,
increasing thereby the chanc es for Sub-Saharan African States to achieve the M DGs by
the target date of 2015.
* Research Professor of International Laws and Director of Enterprise and Internationa l Aa irs,
Brunel Law Sc hool, Brunel Universit y, Uxbr idge, United Kingdom. e author is gr ateful to
Constance Chigar a, Ba rnabas Chigara, Ben Chigara Jr, a nd Mai nini Bridget Taremba for their
encouragement.
Ben Chigara
10 Intersentia
1. INTRODUCTION
International trade a nd social justice are interdependent, becau se they are both
integral and c ritical to the raison d’ être of why and how people everywhere engage in
and conduct trade.1 e Peace Treaty of Versailles (1919) recognised this by providing
for the creation of the Internat ional Labour Organisation (ILO) for the purpose of
opposing conditions of social injust ice that were l inked to the industrial revolution.
en like now, the u nbridled pursuit of economic grow th had resulted in conditions
of ‘… such injustice, hardship, and privation to large numbers of people as to produce
unrest so great that t he peace and harmony of the world were imperilled’.2
However, the coupling of trade liberalisation issues w ith concerns of social justice
has recently been criticised as an ambitious exercise in futilit y because of the two
ideas’ apparent exclusivity. e World Trade Organization (WTO)’s primary concern
is to maximise gross international wealth creation3 through trade libera lisation.4
Non-discriminat ion of products and ser vices from member States parties is t he basic
premise on which the system has been established. is is ensured by the requirement
of two of its foremost principles, na mely, the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) a nd the
Nationality Treatment (NT) principles.5
1 e contrary v iew is that trade i ssues are dist inct and separat e from non-trade issue s. See Alvarez ,
José E. et al., ‘Symposium: e Bounda ries of t he WTO’, Ame rican Journa l of Inter national Law,
Vol. 96, No. 1, 2002 pp. 1–4, for a t horough di scussion on the exclusi vity of trade iss ues and the
question whether al leged link ages of trade issue s with other matter s are va lid or not. Discus sing
the undenia ble link bet ween trade and social justice see also Dommen , Caroline, ‘R aising Human
Rights Concer ns i n the World Trade Organ ization: Actors, Proces ses and Possible Strategies’,
Human Rights Quar terly, Vol. 24, No. 1, 2002, pp. 1–50. Discussing t he regulation of bio-sa fety and
internationa l trade see also Qureshi, Asif H., ‘e Ca rtagena Protocol on Bio-safet y and the WTO –
Co-Existe nce or Incoherence?’, Inter national and Compa rative Law Quarte rly Review, Vol. 49, No.
3, 2000, pp. 835–855.
2 See appendix to the IL O Constitution (1919) availa ble at ILO web site, www.ilo.or g/global/About_
the_ILO/Or igins_and _history/Const itution/lang-en/i ndex.htm#annex (visited 20 January
2008). Se e also Chigara, Ben, ‘L atecomers to the I LO and the Authors hip and Ownership of the
Internationa l Labour Code’, Human Rights Qu arterly, Vol. 29, No. 3, 2007, pp. 706–726.
3 Discussing the optima l mandate of the W TO and ar guing for this fu nction to b e separated from
non-market access issu es, see also Bagwell , Kyle, Mav roidi, Petros C. and Staiger, Robert W.,
‘It’s A Question of Market Access’, Am erican Jo urnal of Internationa l Law, Vol. 96, No. 1, 2002 ,
pp. 56–76.
4 Arguing that the WTO sponsore d trade liberalisati on project is nothing less than a convenient term
to indicate US hegemony, see a lso Alston, Phi lip, ‘e Myopia of the Handma idens: Internation al
Lawyers and Global ization’, European Journal of International Law, Vol. 8, No. 3, 1997, pp. 435–448,
at p. 435.
5 See Final Act Embodyi ng the Results of t he Uruguay Round of Multi lateral Trade Negotiation s
Article 1, 15 Apri l 1994, 33 Internationa l Legal Mater ials 1125, 1994. is requirement applies
also to trade in serv ices covered by the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) Article
2, 15 April 1994, Ma rrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Or ganization, Annex 1B,
Legal Instruments – Result s of the Uruguay Round, 33 International Legal Mater ials 1125, 199 4,
available a t: www.wto.org/English /docs_e/legal_ e/04-wto.pdf ( last accessed 20 Janua ry 2008).
Trade Liberali sation and Sub-Saha ran Africa’s Potential to Ac hieve the UN MDGs by 2015
Netherlands Q uarterly of Human R ights, Vol. 26/1 (2008) 11
But the WTO objective and modu s operandi are signicant for other sta keholders
in international organisation, including t he ILO that is concerned with the social
impact of WTO policies on indiv iduals everywhere because of its mandate to
ensure universal social justice. erefore, the UN as cu stodian of universal peace
and secu rity must account for the possibilit y, however remote, that WTO outcomes
may adversely impact its gr and strategies for peace building and peace making and
also its aspiration to privi lege, above all else , both the huma n rights and t he human
development agenda summed up in the M illennium Development Goa ls (MDGs)
project. In contr ast, the WTO agenda privileges rst a nd foremost, the development
of market eciency every where. e push a nd pull fac tors that underpi n ILO, UN,
WTO, and other international organisations’ activ ities necessarily pit themselves
along one another’s objectives in a complimentary way. Oentimes they pit t hem one
against the ot her. e tension created by their interaction is indic ative of the absence
of a formal hierarchy among international organisations. e consequent relational
tensions can pour-over and threaten or actually i mpede the activities of one or ot her
international organis ation.
Neither GATT (the predecessor to WTO) nor the WTO has had a formal agreement
with the UN. Formally, the extent of their relationship has been limited to an exchange
of letters between the heads of these two bodies. In 1952, Eric Wyndham White
(the rst Executive Secretar y of GATT) and Trygve Lie (the UN Secretary-General)
exchanged letters th at acknowledged the ‘close de facto working arra ngements which
exist between t he United Nations Secretariat and the Secret ariat of the Interim
Commission (GATT)’.6 Upon the creat ion of the WTO on 1 January 1995, a further
exchange of lett ers occurred between the WTO Director-General (Renato Ruggiero)
See also Agreement on Trade-Related Asp ects of Intellectual Prop erty Rights (TRI PS) Ar ticle
4, 15 April 1994, Mar rakesh Agreement E stablishing the World Trade Organ ization, Annex 1C,
Legal Instruments – Results of the Uru guay Round, 33 Internationa l Legal Mate rials. Ex amining
the p otential and actu al eec t on competition policy of member States pa rties of the WTO, se e
also Bou ghzala, Mongi, ‘Impact On Workers of R educed Trade Ba rriers: e Case of Tunisia and
Morocco’, Internat ional Labour Review, Vol. 136, No. 3, 1997, pp. 379–399, at p. 379. See al so Lee,
Eddy, ‘Globaliz ation and Labour Sta ndards: A Review of Issues’, International Labour Review, Vol.
136, No. 2, 1997, pp. 173–189, at p. 173; Gunter, Bernhard G. and Van der Hoe ven, Rolph, ‘e
Social D imension of Globa lization: A Review of the Literature’, Inter national Labour Review, Vol.
143, No. 1–2, 2004, pp. 7–43, at p. 7; Ser vais, Jean-Michel, ‘Globalization and Decent Work Policy :
Reections Upon a New Lega l Approach ’, Internationa l Labour Review, Vol. 143, No. 1–2, 2004,
pp. 185–207, at p. 185; and Milber g, Willia m, ‘e Cha nging Struc ture of Trade Linked to Global
Production System s: What Are the Policy Impl ications’, International L abour Review, Vol. 143, No.
1–2, 2004, pp. 45–90 , at p. 45.
6 Letter from E. Wyndham White, First Executive Secre tary, General Agreement on Taris and
Trade, to Trygve Lie, U N Secretary-G eneral, 11 August 1952, in: UN E conomic and Social C ouncil
(ECOSOC), 57th Session, Re view of the Agree ments Between the United Nations and the Specialized
Agencies and the International Atomic En ergy Agency, Exchange of Lette rs Between the E xecutive
Secretary of the General Agre ement on Taris and Trade an d the Secretary- General, Let ter dated 11
August 1952, UN Doc. E/5476/Add.12/Annex I, 24 May 1974, available at : www.unsyst emceb.org/
reference/system/agr eements/wto_gatt _e_5476_a dd12_1974 (last accessed 27 Ja nuary 2008).
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