The Deputy will be aware from my reply to her question of 7 December that any consideration of measures to restrict trade would have to be undertaken initially in the European Union and would have to have regard to our obligations as a contracting party to the GATT/WTO. There have been efforts to include the issue of labour standards in the agenda of the World Trade Organisation. These efforts have given rise to fears that labour standards could be used as a pretext for trade protectionism. Ireland favours the examination of this issue in a transparent and multilateral way which is not protectionist.
While the Union's common commercial policy and its relations with the WTO are primarily matters for my colleague, the Minister for Tourism and Trade, I should like to add that the EU has taken a number of measures relevant to this general issue. First, special incentive arrangements under the EU Generalised System of Preferences shall be applied, with effect from 1998, to those countries which abide by ILO Conventions on, inter alia, the minimum age for entry into employment. Second, all new EU agreements with third counties will contain provisions committing both sides to respect democratic principles and fundamental human rights as set out in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and providing for measures, up to and including the suspension of the agreement, if such provisions are violated. Third, the EU/US Joint Action Plan, signed in Madrid on 3 December 1995, commits both sides to work together “in the WTO and other fora with a view to dissipating various misunderstandings and preoccupations of trading partners regarding the relationship between trade and internationally recognised labour standards.”
