1. I found this excellent coffee tariff list by @Jim_Cornelius the other day, and it tells a whole story about the trade deals the EU have and their trade policy. 
2. There are three Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries on that list paying tariffs: Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand. Two of which are near the top. 
3. So, in 1996 the ASEAN counties decided to include into their bloc a country called Myanmar, a country that some know better as Burma. 
4. This addition to the ASEAN bloc was not without controversy, because in 1996 the people of Myanmar had been subjected to some of the worst human rights violations in a decade. 
5. The West attempted to persuade the ASEAN countries not to accept them as members. In contrast the ASEAN members weren’t overly happy about being told what to do, and were worried Myanmar may end up going with China who were already Myanmar’s largest arms supplier. 
6. Myanmar’s membership came in 1997, a year that saw the EU and Canada follow the example of the US and remove the Generalized System of Preference that gave Myanmar special market access, and saw the EU declare that Myanmar was not eligible to benefit from "Everything but Arms”
7. And in November 2000, the International Labour Organisation implemented measures against Burma/Myanmar under Article 33 of the ILO Constitution – the first time the Article has ever been applied to an ILO member. 
8. The UN Commission on Human Rights called for “an end to violations of the right to life and integrity of the human being and to the practices of torture, abuse of women, forced labour and forced relocations, enforced disappearances and summary executions.” 
9. The ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting (AEMM) was also suspended for several years. It was a time of real friction between the ASEAN bloc and the EU.
10. However, the EU and ASEAN sought a solution through diplomatic channels, and finally the EU announced ‘A new partnership with South East Asia’ in 2003, and a month later the Burmese military regime presented a seven-step ‘roadmap’ for constitutional and political reform. 
11. During this time, Myanmar was still a possible blocker for trade relations, with EU Trade counsellor, Jean-Jacques Bouflet remarking in 2006 that Myanmar “is the main issue that we have to consider as we decide whether to proceed on free-trade association negotiations”
12. After research was done on the benefits, the EU announced they would be seeking a trade deal on April 23, 2007. However, despite papers highlighting the economic gains, the actual implementation was an issue early on. ASEAN wanted regional agreement for all of its ten members 
13. The EU wanted to exclude Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, arguing that their low levels of economic development meant it was unnecessary complication. Cambodia and Laos were already benefitting from EBA. 
14. They EU also argued that they didn’t want to include Myanmar because of the human rights issues. However, the ASEAN block held firm and insisted it was included, and assured the EU that the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights was on the way. 
15. And so the negotiations began on the eve of the Saffron Revolution, a series of mass protests led by Buddhist monks against the government in Myanmar that were met with military suppression. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi…
16. The EU discovered that, due to the configuration and relationships, negotiating with the bloc was only going to yield a goods only free trade agreement. It could have decided to continue, but things were spilling over. 
17. There was international pressure 
18. And Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia were starting to get very worried about Myanmar. This is notable, because Thailand and the Philippines were also under fire themselves for their own human rights record. 
19. Eventually the EU and the ASEAN bloc agreed they were getting nowhere in March 2009, but then in December of the same year, the EU announced they wanted to negotiate with each state individually. 
20. As a result Indonesia has just kicked off its 4th round negotiations. thejakartapost.com/news/2018/02/1…
21. Thailand were on their way to negotiating a deal until the coup d'état that led to a crackdown of basic rights and freedoms, leaving the EU to suspending the process “until a democratically elected government is in place”. 
22. The Vietnam deal has been completed, but because the EU Commission began negotiations pre-Lisbon, their human rights assessment was not as full or as comprehensive, as the human rights assessments required post-Lisbon, and this proved controversial.
23. With a series of high profile stories, such as well-known human rights lawyer Nguyễn Văn Đài being arrested, this led to a complaint from human rights groups to the EU ombudsman who upheld their complaint on the basis the Commissions action wasn’t “in the spirit of Lisbon”. 
24. While the EU Ombudsman didn’t refer it to the EU Parliament, what seems like a technicality might actually come up later this year when a vote is expected on the deal, because technicality or not, this is still about human beings.
25. However, that is just three of the countries on that list. What about...for example...China? 
26. Let’s end the myth that the EU hasn’t signed a trade deal with China in 60 years, it definitely has, and it was deepening trade until the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. That incident led to the EEC ending its trade relationship with China. 
27. Then there is also Venezuela, a registered observer to the EU-Mercosur deal. It now can’t join that deal because it was suspended indefinitely by the bloc. 
28. So, after removing countries like India and Brazil, who the EU have been seeking a deal with for many years, and the West Africa and Central Africa country the EU is negotiating with, you are left with a bloody fingerprint. 
29. The fingerprint of slaughter, and slavery, and oppression, leaving their mark.
30. The Cason affair, The Depayin massacre, Black Spring, The Saffron Revolution, The Rohingya genocide, The Colectivos, The Tiananmen Square Massacre, every one of those is reflected in those tariffs.
31. So, when people talk about EU trade deals and tariffs purely in the context of ‘protectionism’ vs ‘free trade’, please remind them that it really isn’t as simple as that.
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