51.   Singapore warned Monday against Western attempts to include labour standards in international trading rules and urged fellow members of ASEAN to continue resisting such a linkage.

52.   Thai Deputy Prime Minister Amnuay Viravan led Asian opposition Thursday to European efforts to link trade with sensitive non-tariff issues such as human rights, environment and labour standards.

53.   The European Union Tuesday distanced itself from US-led demands for the creation of global rules linking trade to the observance of core labour standards.

54.   The draft added that the issue of labour standards was being studied at an international level.

55.   The EU wants Singapore to launch a new round of negotiations aimed at establishing global rules on trade and investment, competition, the environment and labour standards.

56.   The Japanese official stressed that all other participants agreed in principle on the disputed issues, namely investment rules, competition policy, government procurement and labour standards.

57.   The official said opponents had seized on research which showed no linkage between labour exploitation and trade performance, which tended to improve with adherence to core labour standards.