Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-03-Speech-3-255"
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"en.20030903.10.3-255"2
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"Mr President, nobody can dispute the need to create a fair global trading system, but we should not delude ourselves in thinking that fully-liberalised trade will in itself bring about fairness.
In terms of agricultural policy, for example, abolishing all market support and protection would remove about two-thirds of EU farmers from the land. This is in nobody's interests in either rural or urban areas. The current development round at the WTO is supposed to give special attention to the needs of developing countries and their desire to better integrate themselves into the global trading system. This is positive and should, in my view, be fully supported.
Sixty per cent of the world's population lives in rural areas and the vast majority are in developing countries. It is worth noting, at the same time, that trade in agricultural products represented less than 6% of total global trade in 2000. Economic growth, in the initial stages, depends more on developing countries' internal markets than access to markets elsewhere.
The experience of agricultural trade liberalisation in Mexico should serve as a warning against the promotion of fully open markets as a solution for the needs of developing countries. Two decades of this policy in the North American Free Trade Area have led to an increase in rural poverty, malnutrition and emigration. It has also caused increased workloads in agriculture, particularly for women, and an increase in consumer prices.
Increased profit and market control by multinationals has been at the expense of small family farms. If we add to this lost national revenues and damage to the environment and to biodiversity we see that Mexico's experience of seeking to develop its agricultural sector through trade liberalisation has had devastating consequences.
In terms of creating a fair trading system, the EU has made a significant contribution with its everything-but-arms initiative. We have committed ourselves to eliminating the customs duties applied to the exports of the world's 48 poorest countries. I should certainly hope that the Commission will be forcefully urging other rich countries to follow this lead."@en1
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