Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-08-Speech-3-200"
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"en.20081008.22.3-200"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, the current financial crisis is proof that, when a problem is global, we need global action. This is particularly true in food and agriculture. This is largely why the World Trade Organisation was created, and we all agree on this. The WTO tries to have globalised rules.
However, it seems that this does not function exactly as we would like, because we are faced with the following problem: we need to reconcile two things, the free trade that we all agree on, and protection, which is also necessary. Protecting our economies or national agriculture is not a byword for protectionism.
To do this, the road that we have taken over the past 60 years, since GATT, has been a rocky one, with tariffs being cut with a view to scrapping them altogether. Technically, lowering customs tariffs seems to be difficult. As proof, look at the number of mathematical formulas that exist for this purpose: the South Korean formula, the European formula, and of course the Swiss formula. This does not really work, because a product is not unitary. It is composed of numerous elements with very different rules of origin, so technically, reducing customs tariffs is not as simple as we might think. Therefore, we find ourselves in a technical rut, and it is through negotiations that we are trying, politically, to find a way out of this rut.
However, scientists have apparently invented a new customs technology: customs tariffs that are deductible for the exporter against the importing state’s economy. In concrete terms, this deductible customs tariff amounts to a customs credit equal to the amount of duty that the exporter has incurred in the importing country.
There are three sides to this customs credit: it is refundable, negotiable and transferable. First of all, it is refundable: when the exporter goes to buy something from the importer, he can deduct the amount of duty paid. Secondly, it is negotiable, because if the exporting company, which has paid duty, has nothing to buy from the importer, it can sell its customs credit on the stock market or to a bank. Finally, it is transferable: to help developing countries, the importer can donate the surplus customs credit above the amount of customs duty.
Well, with this technique, we create a trade currency, where the money supply is equal to the amount of existing customs tariffs. The European Union, for example, would provide EUR 13 billion in trade currency."@en1
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