Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-13-Speech-3-183"
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"en.20020313.7.3-183"2
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"Mr President, I was Minister for Steel in the United Kingdom between 1987 and 1989 and was responsible for an industry which was over-manned, uncompetitive, riddled with old-fashioned practices and heading for disaster. When it was privatised, it experienced a traumatic time with the loss of plants and jobs, and morale was at rock bottom. However, it had to be endured to secure any future at all. We do not want that to happen again because an outside agency such as the United States has seemingly broken WTO rules, especially since the US itself should restructure old plants, rationalise employment and pension practices so that its own industry is improved, but not at the expense of European industry.
I find it disturbing, to say the least, that Romania is one of the countries exempted by the United States of America. Romania is home to Sidex, closely connected to Ispat, the firm controlled by Lakshmi Mittal, which gave Tony Blair and the Labour Party GBP 125 000 for their general election campaign and then lobbied President Bush harder than anyone else to impose 30% tariffs that would protect his United States and Romanian steel interests at a potentially deadly cost to British plants and jobs. Just whose side is Tony's crony on? It does not appear to be British and European workers, since Mittal will make an estimated USD 1 billion from this deal. That GBP 125 000 gift was a real steal – a cheap and cynical investment that will literally pay dividends.
Therefore, the Labour Government is not our answer – the Commission is. We must support the Commissioner in his determined attempts to protest and, if necessary, retaliate – but carefully. We need the OECD talks to continue and to produce success. How about some targeted action against products from Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia?"@en1
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