Constitutional Opinions: Global Creep

...In the absence of ILO safeguards, its director general argued in 1997, "public opinion will continue to believe...that globalization [of trade] inevitably implies a downward leveling of pay for jobs...

...The traditional view was succinctly stated by Chief Justice Hughes in 1929:"Treaty-making power is intended for the purpose of having treaties made relating to foreign affairs and not to make laws for the people of the United States in their internal concerns...

...Thus the ILO's 193o Convention on the eradication of "forced labor" was duly signed by Soviet Russia after World War II as well as by its East European satellites—and these Communist governments were never exposed to any ILO discomfit...

...has had serious scruples about committing itself to such ventures...

...In the State of the Union speech (as in earlier speeches before select audiences last fall), he urged that the WTO work with the Geneva-based International Labor Organization (ILO) to extend respect for international standards on conditions of labor, without necessarily changing WTO rules...

...But he was also, as his rulings against major New Deal programs would attest a few years later, a defender of constitutional limits on federal power...

...on trade matters...

...Earlier in the century, labor leaders and social reformers feared that states that adopted overly generous welfare measures would lose jobs to states with fewer restrictions...

...62 The American Spectator March 1999 U.S...

...entry into the new World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994...

...The ILO is said to be reformed and more sober now, but it is still not very formidable...

...None seems to have suffered for failing to live up to its platitudinous commitments...

...The point of these ILO conventions, if there is one, is to offer a kind of outside benchmark for disputing political factions within a country...

...In domestic affairs, the congressional power to regulate interstate commerce was long supposed to exclude federal interventions in purely intra-state matters...

...He did persuade Congress to endorse NAFTA in 1993 and U.S...

...Less-developed countries and many business groups fear that any relaxation on this score would open the way to endless trade disputes, in which protectionist industries in one country would cite poor labor conditions in others as a pretext for denying easy entry to their products...

...Would we not, by endorsing ILO conventions, embrace the same unlimited view about the claims of international trade regulation...

...But then Republicans refuse to include them in fast-track negotiating authority...

...On the contrary, by the mid-197o's the ILO became so dominated by leftist posturing (and all the usual attacks on Israel) that the U.S...

...there might not be much danger in subscribing to ILO conventions...

...When fast track came up again in the House last September, it was overwhelmingly defeated (18o-243) — with only 29 Democrats voting in favor, and 171 opposed...

...Having claimed four years before that "the era of Big Government is over," he now called for Really Big Government: a global New Deal...

...Yet there is some awkwardness...

...One deserving a closer look is the president's recommendation on world trade, which would commit the United States to a whole new venture in global governance...

...S o Clinton has proposed a classic Clintonian compromise...

...Moreover, unlike most other international conventions (but like most other ILO conventions), the convention on employment discrimination stipulates that it must be accepted or rejected in toto, and cannot be renounced by the signatory state for a period of ten years after it has been signed...

...Why should we let our view of the proper policy toward such disputes be governed by international standards simply because other nations endorse them...

...It is a hard sell...

...Thus a study in the mid-1990's found that countries which had corn-mitted themselves to ILO conventions on social welfare protections did have higher levels of spending on such matters than non-signatories, apparently because the ILO standards served as a platform for internal political agreements on such mailers...

...He said: "As to the opinion of those who consider the grant of the treaty making power as boundless: If it is, then we have no Constitution...

...Clinton himself proves the point in calling for ratification of the ILO convention on employment discrimination...

...Even when a state commits to a particular convention, the ILO has no means of enforcement except to issue a critical report after it investigates charges of noncompliance...

...trade with poor countries, which will always have lower labor costs...

...To build support for this project, Clinton also proposed last May that the No, not Bill, but his new calls to regulate world trade...

...We could probably live with all this—or with ILO criticism for failing to live up to it...

...FDR found it feasible to take the United States into the ILO in the 1930's, even while remaining aloof from its ill-fated sponsor, the League of Nations...

...Hughes's caution remains sound...

...The analogy is apt...

...Throughout its history the U.S...

...Down the road, however, our government might not find it as easy as others to ignore domestic constituencies that demand that new policies conform with "international law...

...We do not now prohibit discrimination on the basis of "political opinion," for example, and it is far from clear that we would want to adopt the ILO approach...

...But the Clinton administration, along with most serious economists, supports international trade, even with low-wage countries like China and Mexico...

...William Jefferson Clinton should be reminded of the apt words of his worthier namesake, Thomas Jefferson...

...The 1958 Convention on employment discrimination prohibits discrimination on the basis of "political opinion" and "religion" as well as race, sex, and "social origin...

...But votes in the House were very close, and Congress has since declined to authorize new trade negotiations...

...In the 1930's, the U.S...

...In turn, as poor countries gain wealth through trade, they can offer better markets for American exports...

...He has offered vague promises that future negotiations will integrate "environmental concerns" with trade rules, but the one specific proposal he has made is seemingly more limited...

...We have got to put a human face on the global economy...

...ratify the ILO convention on employment discrimination...

...Is it really plausible to think that countries practicing race and sex discrimination are thereby giving themselves an unfair advantage in international competition...

...For the Clinton administration, enhanced cooperation with the ILO must, no doubt, appear to be a safe (and politically manageable) initial gesture, leaving larger programs of global regulation to another day...

...So for the U.S...

...After the constitutional upheaval of the 1930's, politicians came to regard anything and everything as plausibly related to interstate commerce, so that by the 1990's Congress was enacting specifications for water use by flush toilets nationwide...

...The president now seeks to persuade business groups that some provisions along these lines are the pricethat must be paid to build adequate political support for new trade agreements...

...is already in full compliance with the employment discrimination convention...

...Clinton's rhetoric was typically grandiose: "Now that the world economy is becoming more and more integrated, we have to do in the world what we spent the better part of this century doing here at home...

...The Constitution has always prohibited barriers to interstate trade...

...The problem with this "race to the bottom" scenario is that it argues against any JEREMY RABKIN 1S a professor of government at Cornell University...

...So if this seemingly small measure is a proper exercise of the treaty power, what wouldn't be...

...Now that international trade agreements are bringing down trade barriers between countries, labor leaders and environmentalists are demanding international regulations to prevent countries from "competing unfairly...

...withdrew from it for several years...

...As it is, the Labor Depaiblient has reported— in blithe disregard of the facts—that the U.S...

...Its charter was negotiated back in 1919 —at a conference in Washington, as it happens...

...But Clinton is in a genuine political fix...

...The ILO proposes separate "conventions" — nearly zoo to date—laying out standards for fair treatment of labor on particular subjects, but each member state remains free to decide which conventions it will accept...

...Should it really be unlawful for an employer to decline to hire a prominent Klan leader or neo-Nazi...

...subscribed to a handful of ILO conventions on international commerce, including a 1936 convention on relations between masters and seamen in ocean shipping...

...Just as Soviet-bloc signatories solemnly pledged to tolerate no employment discrimination based on "political opinion," so today Libya, Iran, Afghanistan, and a host of other unlikely countries pledge they will tolerate no employment discrimination based on sex or religion...

...In the State of the Union, he called for new ILO conventions on child labor...

...But the larger danger is that our readiness to participate would change the general terms of domestic political debate, and, in effect, endorse a real change in our understanding of the Constitution...

...Hasn't the Clinton administration always told us that suppressing race and sex discrimination in this country would actually make us more competitive by bringing all available labor resources into our economy...

...The American Spectator • March 1999 63...

...But we have ratified no ILO standards since WWII for the same reason that we have refrained from fully committing to international human rights conventions: There has long been a body of constitutional opinion that such commitments exceed the limits of the treaty power granted by the Constitution...

...If this is justified to safeguard world trade, what would not be...

...For the first time in a quarter century, a U.S...

...The ILO is eager to help...

...They demanded federal programs, binding on all states, to "level the playing field...

...Otherwise, they warn, if some countries are allowed to exploit their workers and despoil their environment to lower production costs, other countries will feel pressured to do the same to stay competitive...

...After all, if they produce goods more cheaply, they offer lower prices to American consumers (and to American producers using imported components...

...As a result, other countries are reluctant to negotiate seriously with the U.S...

...After all, the ILO isn't some new creation of contemporary "global governance" enthusiasts...

...Clinton made the same point in a speech to the WTO last May, in which he called for greater cooperation between the WTO and the ILO: "Without such a strategy, we cannot build the necessary public support for continued expansion of trade...

...Hughes had been an active Secretary of State in the early 1920's and later served as a justice on the Permanent Court of International Justice at the Hague...

...To bring these critics around, Clinton has been promising that new trade pacts will include special protections for labor and the environment...

...Until now, global trade agreements have focused almost entirely on reducing barriers to the entry of goods and services, while prohibiting any import restrictions based on the way goods are produced, even if it is known that they are produced at low wages or under local laws that prohibit workers from organizing...

...Most Democrats in Congress remain opposed to fast-track authorization because unions and most environmental groups want no new trade agreements...

...Why is an employment dispute in Iowa, involving American citizens at every phase, relevant to international affairs...

...president has been denied "fast track" negotiating authority that commits Congress to an up-or-down vote on new trade agreements...