OXFAM is to press the Government to establish a common EU position on the controversial issue of the social clause in the GATT Agreement.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) also wants a social clause inserted in the agreement to protect workers' rights in developing countries and to prevent unfair competition from cheap labour for workers in developed economies.
However, the British government is firmly opposed to a common EU position and helped block agreement on the issue at the G7 jobs summit last month.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund would also prefer to keep clauses on labour standards out of international trade agreements, because they could undermine competitive pressures and place developing countries at a disadvantage in the international labour market.
The Minister for Tourism and Trade, Mr Kenny, is to represent the EU at the first ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Singapore next December, where the social clause is likely to dominate the debate.
Oxfam is pressing for a common approach between developing countries and the developed world on the implementation of International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions on equal pay, freedom of association and the abolition of forced labour.
"Governments and workers find themselves locked into endless competition to offer lower and lower production costs, with serious implications for labour regulation," said Ms Mary van Lieshout, Oxfam's policy adviser in Ireland.
"The combination of trade liberalisation measures over the past decade, along with the groping mobility of international capital, has brought this competition to fever pitch.
In Latin America, the Caribbean and throughout Asia, increased competition had put direct pressure on workers' rights as footloose multinationals play one country off against another", she said.
There has also been a huge increase in the number of countries creating free trade zones, particularly in the Caribbean. In the garment industry, where women comprise the bulk of the workforce, workers often had to work long hours without a break and accept compulsory overtime, intimidation and harassment as well as extremely low wages.
She cited the ICFTU's 1995 report which showed that there were now 95 states where repressive legislation was in place to curb trade unions.
While many governments and other agencies "are justifiably suspicious" of the motivation behind the social clause, Ms Lieshout said that ILO conventions could be made to operate fairly to protect workers everywhere from the extremes of exploitation.