Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-29-Speech-4-020"
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"en.20050929.3.4-020"2
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"We had hoped for something fresh from the Commission. We had hoped for practical measures backed by appropriate, urgently-needed resources to implement important proposals laid down in Parliament’s resolution of 6 September. What we heard, however, was more of the same, and attempts at defending the indefensible. Let us cast our minds back:
On 1 January, the liberalisation of the textiles and clothing sector was accompanied by an exponential increase in imports to the EU. The Barroso Commission had been warned of the grave social and economic consequences for countries such as Portugal, and of the pressing need to activate the safeguard clauses provided for in the trade agreements. Yet it was not until 6 April that it implemented these clauses, albeit watering down the impact of their implementation. It then took until 17 May for it to open talks on just two categories of textile products, leading to the presentation on 10 June of an agreement, which quite apart from turning its back on the use of the safeguarded clauses, was laden with booby-traps. Once again, because of the absence of regulation on implementation, it did not enter into force until 20 July, which gave the large European multinational importers and distributors time to undermine the import limits agreed in June.
In September, the Commission, pandering to the wishes of the large multinationals, this time acted quickly, and forced the admission of millions of textile and clothing items, going back on what it had itself agreed. The moral of the story is that those who have gained from the liberalisation of the textiles and clothing trade are the large importers and distributors; it is they who have raised their profit margins to ever more outlandish levels. The losers are the European textiles industry, the workers and the thousands of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises."@en1
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