New rules to ensure that chemicals used in industrial processes, such as manufacturing plastics, textiles, aspirin, flu and allergy remedies, dyes and perfumes, are not diverted to the illegal production of heroin, speed or crack were adopted by the Civil Liberties Committee on Wednesday and by the International Trade Committee on Thursday.

The EU Council of Ministers should authorize the start of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks with the US in June, say International Trade Committee MEPs in a resolution voted on Thursday. The negotiating mandate should include public procurement and financial services, but exclude culture, they add.

The EU should reinstate Myanmar's duty and quota free access to the EU market, said the EP's international trade committee on Thursday, in support of the Commission's proposal to support Myanmar in its reforms, in particular its efforts to eradicate forced labour.

What should be on the negotiating table in the upcoming EU-US talks on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership? The international trade committee holds its first debate on Parliament's input into the negotiating mandate which is currently being drafted by the Commission and will have to be adopted by the Council.

International Trade Committee MEPs on Thursday strongly backed moves to start talks with the US on the world's biggest-ever trade deal but warned Commissioner Karel De Gucht that hard bargaining would be needed to clinch a deal acceptable to the EU public.

Here is a summary of the priorities of Ireland's Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, as presented by Irish ministers to European Parliament committees. These presentations were all made in the week of 21-25 January, except for agriculture (31 January).

Parliament should give its consent to a proposed EU trade deal with Columbia and Peru, said the International Trade Committee on Tuesday. MEPs welcomed the countries' commitments to specific labour and environmental targets, set out in binding roadmaps, as requested by European Parliament in the run-up to the deal.

Measures to safeguard the interests of vulnerable EU banana producers in forthcoming EU trade deals with Central America and Peru and Columbia were approved by the International Trade Committee on Tuesday.

The international trade committee gave its green light for free-trade talks with Japan on Thursday, pointing to the huge gains for jobs and growth offered by deeper ties with Japan, a strategic partner of the EU. But negotiations should be suspended if Japan fails to remove barriers in key sectors including cars, say MEPs.

EU-certified pharmaceuticals could be exported to Israel and vice-versa without requiring additional certification in the importing country under a mutual recognition deal endorsed by the International Trade Committee on Tuesday. But to take effect, the deal must be approved by Parliament as whole.