text: SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
  
      This Act may be cited as the ``Worker Rights and Labor Standards 
  Trade Act of 1994''.
  
  SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
  
      The Congress makes the following findings:
              (1) International trade, when fair and open, can serve as 
          an important factor in the economic well-being of nations; but 
          the maintenance of a fair and open world trading system 
          requires the enhancement and active enforcement of national and 
          international trade agreements and laws by all trading nations.
              (2) As the productivity of our trading partners that are 
          developing countries has risen, the ability of many of these 
          countries to export goods cheaply to the United States has been 
          based, in part, upon the violation of internationally 
          recognized worker rights.
              (3) The exploitation of workers is an unacceptable means 
          for any country, whether developed or developing, or industry 
          to gain competitive advantage in international trade.
              (4) Exports to the United States from countries which fail 
          to respect internationally recognized worker rights undermine 
          living and working standards in both those countries as well as 
          the United States, because international corporations can play 
          workers in one country off against those in another with 
          respect to wages and work standards in order to minimize costs.
              (5) At various times in the 20th century, international 
          agreements and United States policy have explicitly stated that 
          fundamental worker rights and fair labor standards are 
          necessary to the workings of a fair international trading 
          system.
              (6) The United States and over 160 other member nations of 
          the International Labor Organization are legally obligated to 
          ``endeavor to secure and maintain fair and humane conditions of 
          labor for men, women, and children, both in their own countries 
          and in all countries to which their commercial and industrial 
          nations extend''.
              (7) For decades, United States trade negotiators, whether 
          serving in Democratic or Republican administrations, have 
          initiated discussions to no avail with ranking officials of the 
          GATT and the International Labor Organization concerning the 
          demonstrable relationship of fundamental worker rights and fair 
          labor standards to prior rounds of multilateral trade 
          negotiations.
              (8) The right of all workers to certain fundamental rights 
          is affirmed in the following international agreements to which 
          the United States is a party:
                      (A) The United Nations Charter, which states in 
                  Article 55 that ``the United Nations shall promote 
                  higher standards of living, full employment, and 
                  conditions of economic and social progress and 
                  development,''.
                      (B) The United Nations Universal Declaration of 
                  Human Rights, which states in Article 23 that 
                  ``Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of 
                  employment, to just and favorable conditions of work 
                  and to protection against unemployment . . . `and that' 
                  Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable 
                  remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an 
                  existence worthy of human dignity.''.
                      (C) The United Nations International Covenant on 
                  Civil and Political Rights, which states in Article 8 
                  that ``No one shall be required to perform forced or 
                  compulsory labor.''.
                      (D) The Revised Charter of the Organization of 
                  American States, which states in Article 31 that 
                  ``Member States agree to dedicate every effort to 
                  achieve the following basic goals . . . Fair wages, 
                  employment opportunities, and acceptable working 
                  conditions for all.''.
                      (E) The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 
                  which--
                              (i) provides in the preamble that relations 
                          among countries ``in the field of trade and 
                          economic endeavor should be conducted with a 
                          view to raising standards of living and 
                          ensuring full employment,'';
                              (ii) allows, under Article XX, any country 
                          to take action against products of prison 
                          labor; and
                              (iii) incorporates by reference Article 7 
                          of Chapter II of the Havana Charter which 
                          states that ``the members recognize that 
                          measures relating to employment must take fully 
                          into account the rights of workers under 
                          intergovernmental declarations, conventions, 
                          and agreements. The members recognize that all 
                          countries have a common interest in the 
                          achievement and maintenance of fair labor 
                          standards related to productivity, and thus in 
                          the improvement of wages and working conditions 
                          as productivity may permit. The members 
                          recognize that unfair labor conditions, 
                          particularly in production for export, create 
                          difficulties in international trade, and 
                          accordingly, each member shall take whatever 
                          action may be appropriate and feasible to 
                          eliminate such conditions within its 
                          territory.''.
              (9) The adherence of the United States to the principles 
          referred to in paragraph (5) is reflected in--
                      (A) the provisions of the Tariff Act of 1930 that 
                  prohibit the importation of goods produced by forced 
                  labor,
                      (B) the provisions of title V of the Trade Act of 
                  1974 (relating to the Generalized System of 
                  Preferences) that--
                              (i) define internationally recognized 
                          worker rights as the right to association, the 
                          right to organize and bargain collectively, the 
                          prohibition of the use of any form of forced or 
                          compulsory labor, a minimum age for the 
                          employment of children, and acceptable 
                          conditions of work with respect to minimum 
                          wages, hours of work, and occupational safety 
                          and health; and
                              (ii) prohibit the extension of trade 
                          preferences to any developing country that 
                          ``has not or is not taking steps to afford 
                          internationally recognized worker rights to its 
                          workers''; and
                      (C) the provisions of section 231A of the Foreign 
                  Assistance Act of 1961, which allow the Overseas 
                  Private Investment Corporation to insure, reinsure, 
                  guarantee, or finance a project only if the country in 
                  which the project is to be undertaken ``is taking steps 
                  to adopt and implement laws that extend internationally 
                  recognized worker rights . . . to workers in that 
                  country.''.
              (10) Little, if any, progress has been made ``to adopt, as 
          a principle of the GATT, that the denial of worker rights 
          should not be a means for a country or its industries to gain 
          competitive advantage in international trade'', pursuant to 
          section 1101(b)(14) of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness 
          Act of 1988.
  
  SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF WORKING PARTY ON WORKER RIGHTS.
  
      (a) Action by the President.--The President shall seek the 
  establishment in the GATT of a working party to examine the 
  relationship of fundamental internationally recognized worker rights to 
  the articles, objectives, and related instruments of the GATT, 
  particularly the preamble, Article XXIX, and Article XX.
      (b) Objectives of Working Group.--The objectives of the working 
  group described in subsection (a) would be to--
              (1) explore ways in which to link the conduct of 
          international trade to respect for fundamental internationally 
          recognized worker rights;
              (2) examine the economic impact of competition that is 
          based upon trade distortions that are attributable to the 
          systematic denial of fundamental internationally recognized 
          worker rights;
              (3) consider and develop information on the incidence and 
          effects of systematic, trade-distorting worker rights practices 
          and ways to address such practices; and
              (4) establish that it is unjustifiable for any country or 
          any of its industries to seek to gain competitive advantage in 
          international trade through the systematic denial of 
          fundamental internationally recognized worker rights.
  
  SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF STANDING COMMITTEE ON WORKER RIGHTS WITHIN THE 
                WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION.
  
      The President shall seek the establishment in the World Trade 
  Organization, when such organization becomes effective, a standing 
  committee to carry out the functions of the working group described in 
  section 3.
  
  SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.
  
      As used in this Act:
              (1) The term ``fundamental internationally recognized 
          worker rights'' means ``internationally recognized worker 
          rights'' as defined in section 502(a)(4) of the Trade Act of 
          1974.
              (2) GATT.--The term ``GATT'' means the General Agreement on 
          Tariffs and Trade.
target: Worker Rights and Labor Standards Trade Act of 1994 - Directs the President to seek the establishment of:  (1) a working party within the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to examine the relationship of fundamental internationally-recognized worker rights to specified articles of the GATT; and (2) a standing committee within the World Trade Organization to perform the functions of the working group.
feat_title: Worker Rights and Labor Standards Trade Act of 1994