30. Believes that adjustment assistance in response to trade shocks is indispensable to facilitate acceptance of freer trade, since, in the absence of adjustment assistance and social safety nets, trade liberalisation will be resisted or reversed; considers that the EU's ability to finance and implement AfT in this regard will require a much deeper understanding of the adjustment processes that workers, consumers, businesses and governments of developing countries experience as a result of trade liberalisation;

30. Believes that adjustment assistance in response to trade shocks is indispensable to facilitate acceptance of freer trade, since in the absence of adjustment assistance and social safety nets, trade liberalisation will be resisted or reversed; considers that the EU's ability to finance and implement AfT in this regard will require a much deeper understanding of the adjustment processes that the workers, consumers, businesses and governments of developing countries experience as a result of trade liberalisation ...[+++];

To assist these two industries in their efforts to compete effectively in the changing world markets, we are: continuing to work with our U.S. and Mexican counterparts to facilitate the access of textile and apparel companies to world-class inputs; reviewing proposals for an outward processing program that could provide new market opportunities for the textile and apparel industries; continuing to protect against the illegal transshipment of imported apparel and textile products; working through the employment insurance program to meet the needs of workers adjusting ...[+++] to changes in the industry and to ensure, through ongoing support for human resource sector councils, that employees obtain the skills they need to respond to the challenges of a rapidly changing labour market; and identifying and reducing tariffs on imported textile inputs used by the Canadian textile and apparel industries to improve the industry's cost competitiveness.

In response to these recommendations, the Government of Canada has committed to the following: first, continuing to work toward an integrated North American market for Canadian apparel and textile products and to consider any proposals made jointly by the apparel and textile industries for new market development through an outward processing initiative; second, continuing to protect against illegal trans-shipment of imported apparel and textile products and to use existing tools, as appropriate, to respond to industry complaints regarding injurious import surges; third, working through the employment insurance program to continue to meet the ...[+++] needs of workers adjusting to changes in the industry and to ensure, through ongoing support for human resource sector councils, that employees obtain the skills they need to respond to the challenges of a rapidly changing labour market; fourth, identifying and reducing tariffs on imported textile inputs used by the Canadian apparel industry so as to improve the industry's cost competitiveness; and, fifth, continuing to work through the national initiatives component of the Canadian apparel and textile industries program to address the technology support, branding, trade development and e-commerce needs of the apparel and textile industries.

4. Notes that continual processes of adjustment to changing framework conditions are unavoidable if businesses are to develop; accordingly, considers it important – as the European social partners also noted in their joint document “Orientations for reference in managing change and its social consequences”– to explain in good time to workers and/or their representatives the need for changes, and to take the interests of the workers into account;

For example, when regional unemployment rates change, we adjust entrance requirements accordingly, as well as the length of time that workers are entitled to receive benefits, an extremely complicated process.