Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Am I that ineffective? I am not sure. Yesterday, ICTU and a number of voluntary organisations launched a sportswear campaign in an effort to get all the major sporting equipment multinationals to agree to a code of practice which would not involve child labour or the exploitation of labour in developing countries in the run up to the Olympics, when the market for such goods will be huge. I ask the Leader to allow us time at some stage to debate the issue of international trading standards, in particular child labour and the so-called free trade zones in many developing countries where nobody can investigate what rights workers have. China is a particular example. As a contribution to the overall issue of development, a debate on minimum labour standards would be useful.