Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 10 April 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Ronnie Downes:

It is a separate set of criteria. As a general principle, again going back to what I mentioned to Senator Higgins earlier, international trade is governed by WTO rules. That has standard set minimum tariffs and so on that are agreed among the countries of the world and among all 166 members of the WTO. It is open to countries to have more favourable relations with particular countries using free trade agreements. Europe has just signed one with New Zealand, for example. It is open to have more restrictive arrangements, as the European Union and other countries have with Russia and Belarus because of what has happened in Ukraine. In parallel with that, there is the dual-use and military use regime, which is a separate set of safeguards that countries have. We have ours in the context of the European Union mechanisms as well, so there are a range of different safeguards in place.

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