The American Apparel & Footwear Association delivered a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday urging the Trump administration to “put America first” by restoring U.S. funding to the International Labour Organization, an agency of the United Nations that promotes social justice and international labor rights.
The letter—the second major appeal led by the trade group—warned that a U.S. withdrawal from the ILO would “cede control of and leadership at the ILO to countries that do not share American values or the ILO’s fundamental principles and rights at work.” It was co-signed by the Fair Labor Association, the National Retail Federation, the Retail Industry Leaders Association and the U.S. Fashion Industry Association, among others.
Last September, Washington announced it was cutting $107 million in funding to the ILO as part of a broader $4.9 billion foreign assistance clawback, after criticizing the organization for working to “unionize foreign workers and punish U.S. corporate interests abroad.” Following backlash from the business community and a federal court injunction blocking the wider foreign aid freeze, however, the White House quietly dropped the ILO from its official list of targeted entities.
Still, the Trump administration has withheld large sums of U.S. assessed dues. Historically the ILO’s largest financial contributor, the United States owes some 257 million Swiss francs ($318 million) in assessed contributions and arrears, amounting to 70 percent of all outstanding dues owed by member states to the organization. Reuters reported in June that the liquidity problems have forced the ILO to cut 120 jobs, pause hiring and trim costs. The agency also rescinded the appointment of a U.S. official to a senior leadership role over the unpaid dues, the report added.
Because the ILO maintains staff and offices in dozens of key countries, delivering “real-time intelligence, contacts and solutions to uphold internationally recognized labor standards,” the apparel and footwear industries rely on its work to ensure a “level playing field” for American manufacturers, farmers and workers, the letter said.
“The ILO builds institutions in countries around the world so that they can effectively implement and enforce internationally recognized labor standards, standards the U.S. created and upholds in its own laws,” it added. “Further, the ILO’s core international labor standards focus heavily on combatting forced labor, which is an administration priority as demonstrated by the recent Section 301 actions on forced labor and the Trump administration’s vigorous enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and the U.S. Forced Labor Statute.”
The AAFA first wrote to Rubio calling for the U.S. backing of the ILO in December, when it emphasized that 97 percent of clothing and shoes sold in the U.S. are imported, making the ILO’s global oversight critical to protecting the 3.6 million American workers employed throughout the apparel supply chain.
Both letters cited the importance of the ILO’s Better Work program in “establishing strong labor enforcement and transparency” in major sourcing countries around the world. They also noted that the administration continues to demand adherence to ILO core labor standards in its own recent Agreements on Reciprocal Trade, or ARTs, such as those signed with Cambodia and Jordan.
“While we recognize that there is a pressing need for deep reforms at the ILO to establish more responsible management, we believe that the costs of U.S. withdrawal at this time would far outweigh the benefits,” the more recent letter added. “Therefore, we again urge the administration to put America first by immediately restoring, and continuing, U.S. funding for, and participation in, the ILO.”
