mr president honourable members china's economic development is unparalleled in modern economic history and it is playing an increasingly important role on the world scene
this role also entails responsibilities such as respect for fundamental rights and core labour rights
it is crucial for the chinese leadership to live up to these challenges
even in these challenging times china and europe are natural partners
a policy of engagement and dialogue with china is the best way to move forward to resolve these issues notably in the context of our human rights dialogue or the eu-china high-level economic and trade dialogue
this being said we must also stand up for our values and principles including with regard to prison labour in the laogai
in the light of this the commission as i mentioned in my introduction is open to considering an effective way of preventing imports of goods made using prison labour and will further pursue this in close dialogue with the european parliament
my colleague commissioner karel de gucht made extensive reference to human rights in china in this house last tuesday
i can reassure this house that human rights including the european union's wish to see the laogai abolished will be raised at the eu-china summit on six october
unlike the united states the eu does not have a horizontal instrument in place banning the import of goods produced using prison labour
the commission is ready to study the effectiveness of the united states law in preventing such imports given the difficulty in identifying them
i will not miss the opportunity to inform my four colleagues the work of whose respective dgs is related to this issue that according to this house the time has come to establish an inter-dg taskforce to look into this matter more deeply
