Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-12-13-Speech-3-063"
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"en.20001213.2.3-063"2
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"Mr President, for perplexed observers such as myself, this issue is moving from the bizarre to the surreal. We seem to be faced with one series of proposals and counter-proposals after another, dealing with a transitional regime in which the Commission first proposes tariff rate quotas based on historical periods, reference periods, but then moves to a ‘first-come, first-served’ calculation. Meanwhile, the US first condemns historical reference periods but now advocates its own historical reference periods. It has become extremely difficult to follow.
For that reason, amongst many others, I will not comment on the bulk of Mr Dary's report but will try and focus on one issue of principle. Whatever the transitional regime is – whether we go for a tariff rate quota and a licensing system which uses the so-called first-come-first-served system or the historical reference periods, whether it is before or after 1993 – we have to start accepting that this is a transitional regime which will at some point have to be replaced by a WTO-compatible ‘tariff only’ system. We cannot continue year in, year out to avoid our international obligations.
The question is why? Mr Dary suggested that if we were to move towards a ‘tariff only’ WTO system we would somehow be surrendering ourselves to chaotic commercial forces. The truth is quite the reverse. The WTO is a set of rules. It is actually an inhibition on chaos because it tries to institute rules which we all abide by. The European Union has an overwhelming strategic interest to ensure that those rules are reinforced and not weakened, because if we weaken the WTO or the rule of law, who will win? It will be the big guys like the United States; it will be might is right; it will be brute commercial force that will win through.
So I urge you, let us agree on what the transitional arrangement will be according to Mr Dary's report. But let us not turn our backs, as is suggested in Amendment No 11, on the idea that we must eventually move to a ‘tariff only’ system."@en1
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