A World Trade Organisation (WTO) pact on textiles and clothing that went into force this year has led to increased exploitation of workers, the global labour union body ICFTU said Tuesday.

The agreement, signed in 1994 but providing for a 10-year phase-in period, replaced an old pact known as the ATC which allowed countries to set quotas for imports and protect their domestic producers.

In a statement timed for a WTO review of trade policies in the Philippines, the ICFTU -- the

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions -- said clothing industry employees there had become particular victims of the accord.

The WTO agreement has given low-cost China an even bigger share of the global garments market and has led the Philippines government to exempt its industry from the country's minimum wage laws to help it compete, according to the ICFTU.

"What we have here is yet another example of a race to the bottom -- a country lowering its labour standards in order to deal with the impact of the disorderly end of the ATC," said ICFTU General

Secretary Guy Ryder.

"Put simply, countries are being forced to compete by exploiting workers," he declared.

Developing countries in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean which built up national garment industries on the basis of assured markets in rich countries under the ATC, have argued at the WTO for a review of the new arrangement.

Earlier on Tuesday Navin Ramgoolam, just-elected prime minister of Hauritius which created a flourishing clothing export business under the old pact, said he would seek resur-

rection of the preferential deals that it allowed.

Late last year member countries of the 148-nation WTO -- where decisions have to be taken by consensus -- rejected any renegotiation of the agreement, part of the world trade accord concluded during the 1986-93 Uruguay Round.

Many, including China and India to whose clothing exports it has given a huge boost, oppose any revision, arguing that the 10-year delay in the accord's full implementation gave other producers ample time to adjust.