Proposition 51K2736

Projet de loi portant assentiment à l'Accord entre l'Union économique belgo-luxembourgeoise et le Gouvernement de la République populaire de Chine concernant l'encouragement et la protection réciproques des investissements, signé à Beijing le 6 juin 2005.

General information ¶

Submitted by

The Senate

Submission date

June 13, 2006

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

Belgo-Luxembourg Economic Union China international agreement investment

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

CD&V Vooruit LE PS | SP Open Vld N-VA MR

Contact form ¶

Do you have a question or request regarding this proposition? Select the most appropriate option for your request and I will get back to you shortly.

Discussion ¶

Nov. 30, 2006 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

Mr. Speaker, I would indeed like to speak on this treaty, as a memorandum of understanding has been concluded with China by Belgium and Luxembourg. In that memorandum of understanding, the three parties agreed that investments in the three countries must comply with certain environmental and social standards. This is an agreement signed by the political governments of these three countries.

I find it very positive that such a memorandum of understanding exists because it has been supported by the political authorities in the debate on whether globalization should or should not be carried out without limitation or should be accompanied by agreements in the field of environmental protection and social protection. The three governments have decided that investments in the three countries should be made with respect for environmental and social standards.

At our last visit to China, a delegation you have led, Mr. Speaker, we have heard that the American Chamber of Commerce, but also the European Chamber of Commerce – the coincidence that the management of that European Chamber is in the hands of a Belgian and that there are also Belgian companies in that Chamber of Commerce – in China actively lobbying against a new labour law that the Chinese want to introduce. That new labour law is very carefully moving towards social protection for workers working in Chinese and foreign companies based in China. The trial periods would be limited in time, the early termination of a contract becomes slightly more difficult and collective dismissal needs to be negotiated. On those three domains – something widely accepted in all European countries and which China is now slowly trying to introduce – I find that the European Chamber of Commerce is actively lobbying against it.

In the voting on this treaty, I would like to ask our Minister of Foreign Affairs to address this European Chamber of Commerce and point out the existence of the Memorandum of Understanding, in which the political authorities of the three countries have stated that investments abroad must be accompanied by respect for the environment and respect for social standards.

Colleagues, I must do what the opposition, to my surprise, has not yet noticed. I see that there is no minister present in the hemisphere.

I know your comment, because I was present at the moment you formulated it.

The [...]

If I take candidates, there is too little space in the first row.

There can be no debate without a minister in the hemisphere. I know they are in the Senate.

Ladies and gentlemen, I suggest the following. I close the afternoon meeting and start the evening meeting in a quarter of an hour.

Mr. Giet, I can hardly work. Before I get noticed, I have to see that the government is not present.

I conclude the afternoon session.

by Mr. Van der Maelen, you are asking a question to the government. He must be present in order to be able to answer.

I am looking for a member of the government, who is probably in the Senate.

Dec. 7, 2006 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

Does anyone ask for the word?

Does anyone ask for the word?

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen, I will briefly summarize my question.

At the signing of the BLEU-China agreement, a memorandum of understanding was added in which the three parties undertake to take into account the environmental and occupational protection standards or, more broadly, the social aspect of the investment. This is a commitment of the political world. At the same time, when I was in China with the President, I learned that China is slightly tightening its labour legislation. It is about a fraction of what we have to do, for example, regulation on collective dismissal. This is about a fraction of our regulations regarding the trial condition in the recruitment.

What am I fixing? At the moment the Chinese government is working on this, the European Chamber of Commerce, whose chairman is a Belgian, is fully lobbying against this new legislation. I therefore think to see a contradiction between, on the one hand, what the Belgian, including political, government wants, namely that the environment and social climate in China would slowly evolve into what could be called the European social model, and, on the other hand, the lobbying of Belgian companies sitting in the Chamber of Commerce and directly opposing it.

My question to the government is as follows. Would the government ever want to contact the Belgian representatives in the Chamber of Commerce, point them to that contradiction and ask them to behave according to what is stated in the memorandum of understanding?

I like to do it.