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Scottish MEP leads vote on reinstating trade preferences to Burma
David welcomed the European Parliament's endorsement of his report approving EU trade preferences to Burma, but with strict labour standards included. EU trade preferences to Burma were suspended in 1996 when the International Labour Organisation (ILO) assessed forced labour in the country was "serious and systematic". The EU subsequently suspended...
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David speaks out on curbing the power of businesses to challenge legislation
At the May Strasbourg Plenary David spoke out against the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provision in upcoming trade agreements which will give foreign investors the right to sue the EU or a Member State in behind-closed-doors arbitration. Labour MEPs do not support this abuse of corporate power and are challenging...
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Call for greater EU role in alleviating Syrian refugee crisis
The daily terror being waged against the people of Syria is displacing millions and driving thousands of refugees across the border to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq every day. These countries as well as Syria are reaching breaking point and the European Union needs to do more. Speaking at a...
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David Martin speaking out against the Canadian seal hunt
Canada is challenging the EU's ban on the sale of seal products. David Martin explains why he will never support the seal cull after witnessing it firsthand, and will continue to defend the EU's ban on participating in this cruel trade....
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Speaking at the May 2013 Strasbourg Plenary on the recent factory fire and building collapse in Bangladesh
Speaking at the Strasbourg Plenary, David Martin stated that this was a man-made disaster and that many British high street retailers, from cheap to expensive shops, have been taking advantage of the appalling working conditions in Bangladesh and elsewhere. David Martin is the European Parliamentary Labour spokesperson on International Trade...
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Thailand-EU Free trade agreement - David calls for attention to labour rights and especially case of Andy Hall
With the EU will soon launching negotiations with Thailand for a Free Trade Agreement, David, as lead legislator for the Socialist and Democrat Group in the European Parliament calls for a strong commitment from Thailand to labour rights and migrant rights before a trade agreement is approved and asks members...
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David speaking in support of the call for more effort to make the European Citizens' Initiative more effective
Speaking in the April Strasbourg Plenary David stressed his belief that the ECI had the potential to create a public space in which EU citizens can engage with institutions and also that it provided an important opportunity for citizens from different countries to come together to engage in transnational interests....
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David Martin speaks against an EU-Colombia Free Trade Agreement
At the 10 December Plenary session in Strasbourg, David argues that although the Colombian government claims to be addressing the shameful human rights situation in their country, there is no evidence on the ground of an improvement and it will not be right, and this time, for the European Parliament...
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David speaking against the approval of a trade upgrade between the EU and Israel
David Martin MEP and member of the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee today condemned the approval of a trade upgrade between the EU and Israel. The Protocol on the Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (known as ACAA) will make it easier for Israel to export pharmaceutical products...
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Winding up the debate - Exclusion of certain countries from trade preferences
David asks the Commissioner to explain to the House why some countries who initialled EPAs have not gone on to ratify them . This, David indicates, is because one of the key aims of EPAs is supposed to be about regional integration and some countries have been put in very...
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Exclusion of certain countries from trade preferences, September 2012 Strasbourg Plenary debate
The EU has historically given one-sided preferences to ACP partners. The European Commission now believes that this temporary solution should come to an end and their proposal is to remove this preferential access on 1 January 2014. David leads the debate in the September Strasbourg Plenary. He argues that in...
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David speaking on the CAA, July 2012 Strasbourg Plenary
David calls for the Israel trade upgrade (CAA) to be halted. He says any trade upgrade to trade relations with Israel is unacceptable at this time, while Israel continues to flout internatinal law. MEPs were responding to the Commission proposal to give Israel easier access to the EU market forits...
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Reform of GSP to help world's poorest countries
13 June 2012: Socialists and Democrats (S&D) supported the deal reached by the Council and the European Parliament on the reform of the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) to concentrate developing efforts on the poorest countries in the world. However, David, S&D shadow rapporteur, was disappointed not to see more...
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ACTA (Anti Copyright Trade Agreement) on Europarl TV
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Market Access Regulation (MAR), May 2012
With the Market Access Regulation (MAR), the European Commission has proposed fixing a time-limit of January 2012 on the ongoing preferential market access given to many African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. As the the rapporteur, or MEP responsible for the proposal, David argues for an extension of the deadline...
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Committee of Inquiry, May 2012
David speaks as rapporteur to a report on the powers of the Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry. The report is designed to give parliamentarians more power to speak to the people involved, access documents and identify false testimony. In the same way that most national parliaments have the tools at their...
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Death Penalty in Japan
David notes that according to press reports, the new Minister of Justice, Toshio Ogawa, announced that he intended to end the moratorium on the use of the death penalty and resume executions in Japan. David stresses that the EU can never support the use of the death penalty and...
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EU_Morocco Trade Agreement
Speaking on the Agreement between the EU and Morocco concerning reciprocal liberalisation measures on agricultural products and fishery products (Feb 2012), David broadly welcomes the agreement, noting that during the Arab Spring the European Parliament was strongly in favour of the democratic transitions that were taking place and the measures...
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MEP wants to 'Kill Bill'
The controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, has been dealt a heavy blow. A vote on it is due this summer, but David Martin, the MEP responsible for monitoring its progress, has already said it should be rejected. Speaking to us earlier, he said while aiming high, its loose wording...
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Zero Tolerance
March 2010: David asks that the Spanish Presidency take a look at the holistic approach of the Edinburgh Council's Zero Tolerance Campaign set up to fight violence against women twenty years ago....
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David Martin, MEP
David Martin is a Labour Member of the European Parliament,
and one of the six MEPs representing Scotland in Brussels and Strasbourg.
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