Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-17-Speech-3-069"
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"en.19991117.3.3-069"2
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"Mr President, the WTO has certainly succeeded in significantly increasing international trade and worldwide economic production and in removing trade barriers. But what about increasing quality of life, participation in growth development and the creation of new, socially acceptable jobs? In order to reduce the gap between the worst and best developed national economies there must also be agreed social and environmental standards as well as consumer and health protection. This is not a playground for illusionists; in fact, the opposite. Here we are trying to gain the acceptance of the general public. We must succeed in making an exception of those states which, for the sake of short-term gains, permit or even induce production which is damaging to the environment and cements social grievances.
The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs is agreed that states which meet basic social and environmental standards should be especially protected during integration into the world economy. We must bring about a situation where it becomes more difficult to sell products unless they have markings such as “resources obtained with care” or “produced in an environmentally-friendly manner” or “guaranteed not manufactured by children”. We want to persuade consumers to prefer such products. The WTO rules and regulations must be amended such that these voluntary declarations may no longer be hindered.
Two further points belong on the agenda in Seattle: firstly, investment agreements on the basis of the ILO declaration on multinational companies and the corresponding OECD guidelines in which workers’ rights are taken into account; secondly, the setting up of a permanent forum between the WTO and the ILO to consider the acceptance of basic workers’ rights, i.e. the abolition of forced and slave labour, the outlawing of child labour and prohibition of discrimination. The excellent report by Konrad Schwaiger, which deserves consensus and a majority, makes clear that this is about more than just trade policy; it is about the participation of all countries on the basis of equal rights, social progress and the enforcement of human rights."@en1
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