Mr. Speaker, there may be a dilemma, but I cling very strongly to the fact that we do need international rights and obligations in the area of trade and environmental and human rights. Poverty in China is a major concern, particularly in rural areas where reportedly upward of 30 million Chinese people, as many people as we have living in Canada, live in absolute poverty.
With respect to the Chinese automotive industry, reduced tariffs under the WTO will mean exports will quickly flood the Chinese market resulting in a tremendous strain on workers. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the ICFTU, reports that 10 million Chinese auto workers are forecasted to lose their jobs as a result of China's entry into the WTO.
China stands out internationally for its flagrant disregard for human rights. The WTO does not seek to enforce human rights standards, but is concerned only with the facilitation of international trade.
Workers in Chinese industries will be negatively impacted by increased trade. They have no recourse to collective organization. China has ratified the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights, but filed a reservation to prevent workers from freely forming trade unions. The freedom to association and collective bargaining is recognized under the ILO, but it is ignored by China. China also has an abysmal record on workplace safety. In 2000 more than 47,000 industrial accidents were reported in China.
Yes, in theory free trade should work. It should help lift up people at the bottom end of the economic scale but it does need some safeguards. Those safeguards would include human rights, environmental rights and labour standards.