Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-04-22-Speech-2-286"
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"en.20080422.49.2-286"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, fairy tales usually begin with the words ‘once upon a time’. I should also like to begin my speech like this. Once upon a time there was a world trade organisation called the WTO, which wanted to create a worldwide balance between supply and demand through totally free trade. It promised people in the poorest countries a substantial increase in prosperity and people in the rich countries cheap food through the liberalisation of trade. This is the fairy tale; the reality is somewhat different.
Worldwide free trade in agriculture is not appropriate for fighting global hunger and poverty on a sustained basis. The World Bank and the WTO need to be aware of this. Worldwide free trade in agriculture serves only a very few agricultural conglomerates, which export food from the poorest countries without any regard for the food situation itself. Poverty cannot be combated effectively through global agricultural trade. People in the poor regions are no longer able to afford food at high farm prices, and farmers in highly developed regions are no longer able to produce food at low farm prices because it is not profitable at that level. Both clash. Whether Mr Zoellick from the World Bank, Mr Lamy from the WTO and – unfortunately I do need to say this – my colleague Mr Hökmark from my own group grasp these connections, I very much doubt. Therefore, nothing much will change in the situation in the near future.
With regard to farm prices in Europe, in 1961 I received 26 cents for 1 kilo of grain. Two years ago I received 8 cents. Farm prices cannot therefore be the cause of high food prices!"@en1
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