OREANDA-NEWS. February 02, 2016. The very first informal meeting of EU trade ministers and ministers for development cooperation will take place during the Netherlands Presidency.

At a joint lunch at the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam on 2 February the ministers will discuss ways for member states and the Commission to better align their policies on trade and development or 'aid and trade'.

The group meeting, the first of its kind, is a Presidency initiative and will be hosted by the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Lilianne Ploumen. The Netherlands is one of the few countries with a minister who is responsible for both foreign trade and development cooperation.

Added value

Ms Ploumen is keen to show her colleagues the potential added value of combining aid and trade. 'A good example is the textile industry,' she said. 'Too much of the clothing we wear is still made by people working in unhealthy, unsafe conditions who are paid too little. With a common market of 500 million consumers and 25 million companies, the EU has tremendous clout. If EU countries join forces for sustainability and corporate social responsibility, we can really improve the situation in production countries.'

In the morning the development ministers will discuss the issue of migration, in particular support for refugees in Syria and neighbouring countries. The Global Strategy for Foreign and Security Policy, an EU programme, and the Global Goals, launched by the United Nations in 2015, will also be discussed.

Trade agreements

The trade ministers' meeting will begin after the joint lunch. They will discuss topics such as the EU-US trade agreement, TTIP. The EU and the US want to reach an agreement in principle this year.

The ministers will also discuss the Environmental Goods Agreement. A number of countries in the World Trade Organization (WTO) want to abolish the import tariffs on various 'green' goods, which would make tackling environmental and climate issues cheaper and more effective. Green goods are goods that generate sustainable energy (such as windmills) and combat air pollution or purify water.