Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I welcome the opportunity to speak in advance of the ministerial round of the WTO in Hong Kong. Too often, this House debates these matters at the conclusion of talks. The structure of these talks is extremely complicated and we are grateful to the various organisations that advised us on a moral agenda that should emerge from the next round.

The Labour Party believes in a multilateral trade system. We are concerned at the growing tide of unilateralism that causes disadvantage to the weakest. However, the multilateral trade system must have a set of objectives that are firm, that are known and that are moral. The Labour Party regards a number of these objectives to be vital. First, the objective of full and equal employment must be high on our agenda. With the developments in our own market economy in recent weeks, that becomes all the more relevant to us. It must extend to all economies and not just the developed economies. The second objective is to support strongly the millennium development goals.

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