US Labor Sec. on Burma, WTO

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"We will continue to press for the penalties and sanctions in the WTO as
we have done in other international organizations against Burma." -- Hon.
Alexis Herman, US Secretary of Labor
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Seattle -- October 26, 1999 --US Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman
addressed an elite audience at the City Club of Seattle on "International
Labor and the WTO" yesterday, October 25th.

In her remarks, she mentioned the action against Burma in the
International Labour Organization (ILO) last June, in which Burma was
suspended from most participation in the ILO.  The ILO had concluded after
several years of intense research, that Burma under the military junta
practices forced labor on a massive scale, which the ILO called "a modern
form of slavery."  Faced with a complete lack of cooperation from the
Burmese dictatorship, the ILO took the strongest step against a country
that it has taken in its 80 year history.

A questioner from the crowd asked, given the ILO investigation and action,
and given the fact that Burma under the junta is a member in good standing
of the World Trade Organization (WTO), how, specifically, does the US
Government propose to protect the credibility of the WTO by addressing the
question of Burma and its system of forced labor?

Labor Secretary Herman responded, "We will continue to press for the
penalties and sanctions in the WTO as we have done in other international
organizations against Burma," and "press our partners to do the same."

Reporters from Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times, as well as another
unidentified journalist, asked follow-up questions on this issue to
Secretary Herman at the press conference that followed.

Source: Free Burma Coalition, Seattle Office