Making Globalization Work for Worker
讓全球化嘉惠全球勞工
By Eduardo Porter

As President Barack Obama and his chief trade negotiator, Michael B. Froman, try to push through a trade agreement with Pacific Rim countries, and another with the European Union, they must convince several skeptical domestic constituencies – especially labor unions – that the deals are worth having.
美國總統歐巴馬和首席貿易談判代表麥可．佛洛曼致力推動與環太平洋國家，以及與歐盟的貿易協定之際，他們必須說服國內一些對此存疑的特定選民，尤其是工會，這些協定有簽署的價值。（譯註：美國與環太平國家洽簽的自由貿易協定名稱為「跨太平洋夥伴協定」 (Trans-Pacific Partnership，TPP)。美國與歐盟洽簽的自貿協定名稱為「跨大西洋貿易及投資夥伴協議」（Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership，TTIP），將是世界最大的雙邊貿易與投資合作協定）。

“Globalization would happen with or without trade agreements,” Mr. Froman said. “Trade agreements are tools to shape globalization. This includes raising labor standards.”
「無論有沒有貿易協定，全球化都會發生。」佛洛曼說：「貿易協定是形塑全球化的工具，包括提高勞動基準。」

The United States is not the only country trying to write rules to govern the process. China, in particular, is negotiating trade agreements with many of its neighbors that contain little in the way of environmental and labor standards or other safeguards.
美國之外還有其他國家也在試圖制定全球化進程的規範。特別是中國，它正與許多鄰國洽簽貿易協定，卻很少涉及環保和勞動基準或其他保護權益的條款。

“There is a real competition over what rules of the road will shape the global trading system,” Mr. Froman argued.
佛洛曼認為：「各方對全球貿易體系將受到哪些法條規範，爭得很厲害。」

In a couple of cases in the 1990s, the North American Free Trade Agreement pressed companies to recognize unions. Some manufacturing plants on the United States-Mexico border dropped pre-employment pregnancy tests. But Nafta did not make conditions equal for workers in the two countries.
1990年代有好幾個案例，「北美自由貿易協定」強力要求企業承認工會合法性。在美國和墨西哥邊界的一些製造業工廠取消了雇用前的驗孕程序。但這個協定並未使兩國工人工作條件平等。

While labor rules have been improved in later trade agreements, it is unclear how much difference they have made in the lives of workers, said Marva Corley-Coulibaly, an economist at the International Labor Organization.
「國際勞工組織」的經濟學家瑪娃．柯利．庫利巴里表示，勞動法規在後來的貿易協定中有所改善，但讓工人生活改善了多少仍不清楚。

“We still find them frustrating,” said Thea Lee, deputy chief of staff of the American labor union A.F.L.-C.I.O.
美國全國總工會（AFL-CIO）的副秘書長李瑟說：「我們仍然發現情況令人沮喪。」

Studies in the United States and Europe finds that rising competition from Chinese imports accounted for about a quarter of the decline in manufacturing jobs between 1990 and 2007.
美國和歐洲的研究發現，來自大陸的進口商品競爭力日益升高，導致1990至2007年間製造業的工作減少四分之一。

No tweaking of the trade rules will reverse this tide.
小幅修改貿易規範，無法力挽狂瀾。

The United States has, in any case, has some of the weakest labor protections in the advanced world. Hostility toward organized labor in parts of the country is so intense that even companies that want their workers to unionize can’t do it.
無論如何，美國有些保護勞工的法規是先進國家中最差的。美國有些地方對有組織的勞工敵意甚深，以致企業希望員工組織工會卻無法如願。

On the other hand, European workers displaced by China can rely on a deeply rooted network of public support.
另一方面，被中國搞到丟掉飯碗的歐洲勞工，卻能仰賴根深柢固的公共援助網。

Considered this way, the trade agreements that the United States is seeking offer a different sort of opportunity to ensure that American workers are not being hurt. Rather than try to force Pacific Rim countries to bring labor standards up to American norms, why not use the trade agreement with the European Union to import the region’s more expansive labor standards and its more generous social policies?
如此看來，美國洽簽的貿易協定提供了不同的機會，用以確保美國勞工不會受創。與其試圖逼迫環太平洋國家調高勞動基準到美國的水平，何不運用與歐盟的貿易協定，引進歐洲更寬厚的勞動規範、更慷慨的社會政策？

This is an idea that organized labor could rally around. “We would like to build on the strengths that Europe has achieved, not weaken them,” Ms. Lee said. “We want very strong and ambitious labor standards in a European deal.”
這是一個工會組織能夠同心協力奮鬥的目標。「我們想要以歐洲建立的強項為基礎向前邁進，而非七折八扣。」李瑟說：「在與歐洲的協定中，我們要的是非常健全和規模宏大的勞動基準。」

And it will do much more for American workers than imposing a “level playing field” on Mexico, China, Peru or Vietnam.
這樣做，比強加「公平競爭環境」在墨西哥、中國、秘魯或越南頭上，對美國勞工更有幫助。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/business/free-trade-that-american-workers-can-live-with.html

2015-03-17聯合報/G9版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 張佑生譯 原文參見紐時週報七版下