Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-03-08-Speech-2-314"
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"en.20050308.24.2-314"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I feel very much in two minds about the whole preference system as such. The fact that we are removing some of the obstacles to trade faced by the poor countries is obviously a good thing. Trade does contribute to freedom, development and, especially, the prosperity that the poor countries are in extreme need of. What is depressing, however, is the fact that there is any need at all for a special preference system for the poor countries and the fact that the consequences of Europe’s general trade policy are such that, in order to sleep well at night, we have to make exceptions to it for the sake of the poor. Experience shows, moreover, that, as a policy, the preference system has, in very many ways, so far been of a symbolic nature. Few poor countries have made use of the system, not least because it has been so complicated. The objective must, of course, be for us to liberalise trade policy to the extent that we abandon the preference system in its entirety.
The European Union which, in spite of everything, is based upon a wise appreciation of the beneficial effects of free trade, should of course dare to go the whole way. If we do not do so, how can trade, and indeed the world, become freer?
During the debate on this matter, I doubted, however, whether some MEPs remembered that European cooperation was based upon free trade. More than one attempt was made in this House too to protect European sugar production and the textile industry which now already operate behind high tariff barriers – and all this at the expense of producers in poor countries. I, for my part, obviously voted against these attempts, but there are still mumblings about our still having a long way to go.
I personally should like to see the new preference system actually go further, with already low customs duties abolished, opportunities for enhancing the regions improved and the system further simplified.
In conclusion, I wish to repeat my hope that, within the not too distant future, we shall reach a point at which European trade policy is so free, open and untrammelled that we do not in actual fact need any preference system, for European trade policy must be permeated by the same basic idea from which the EU proceeds, namely free trade. Otherwise, we shall not experience Europe as Europe is, in actual fact, supposed to be."@en1
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