Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-04-Speech-3-279"
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"en.20080604.27.3-279"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, it is like customs night here tonight, with Mr Markov’s report on the GSP and Mr Audy’s report on non-tariff barriers, in other words these import and export rules and procedures which we call administrative protectionism, or self-righteous customs barriers. Although the WTO talks a great deal about reducing GATT tariffs, we also have subtle protectionism in the form of quotas, peak tariffs – Europe has more than 110 peak tariffs; Canada, admittedly, has 430 – and graduated import duties that prevent small countries from becoming industrialised, not to mention a list of sensitive products and a GSP which is conditional on respect for human rights and the subjective state of play of customs rules of origin, value or tariff lines. Europe has more than 5 000 tariff lines. In agriculture alone, we have 2 726 tariff lines. Japan, admittedly, has 1 890 and the USA has 1 779, so what do we do with goods when it comes to tariff lines? For example, how do we classify a mummy that arrives here from Egypt for an exhibition? We classify it as dried fish!
Mr Audy’s report covers all of these problems and recognises that the US has returned to customs McCarthyism with a security/insecurity witch-hunt. The era of the pacifist approach of Pope John Paul II, with his famous 1978 homily (‘Open the borders of states, political and economic systems, wide expanses of civilisations and cultures to His grace. Do not be afraid!’), is over, hence the Doha Round, which is still ongoing 10 years after it was started, whereas the Uruguay Round, if I may be so bold as to say, only took 8 years.
What is the root of this problem? The problem stems from the fact that customs duties are 2 000 years old and date back to ancient Rome, to Rome tolls. However, this is the 21st century, and as such, Commissioner, we need new customs technology. Fortunately this new customs technology has been invented by scientists and involves deductible customs duties that can be adapted according to the production cost differential, that are refundable, that can be traded on an exchange and that can be modified to help developing countries.
This, Commissioner, is what you should lay on the WTO negotiating table – this new customs technology – so that we can abolish our archaic customs system."@en1
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