Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-02-Speech-1-077"
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"en.20090202.14.1-077"2
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"(
) I would like to begin by agreeing with the previous speaker that the Doha Round is extremely important, but I would like to add that it has probably never been more important than it is right now. I believe that, precisely in the midst of this financial crisis, we have a greater need than ever before to show that the global trade system actually works.
To put the Doha Round behind us and say that we cannot achieve global agreements on trade would, I believe, be a disaster that could undermine the whole of the global trade system. The failure of the Doha Round will probably never be more costly than it is right now.
The fact that the Doha Round is more important now than ever before is precisely due to the financial crisis. As I see it, the greatest risk that we face with this financial crisis is not the lack of capital for the lending market; the greatest risk is that it triggers protectionist trends. We have seen this throughout history. It happened during the 1930s and literally resulted in disaster for the world’s economy, and it also happened in the 1970s.
I believe we can already see signs that the world thinks it can solve these fundamental problems by means of greater protectionism, despite the fact that there is a risk of the protectionism spreading and creating an even greater crisis in the world economy. This is happening in the area of services, financial services and the trade in services, in particular. In the financial services sector we are seeing protectionism increase very rapidly.
Returning to the Doha Round as it looks today, the main criticism that I had during the entire period that we were negotiating in the Doha Round is probably that it began to be about agriculture, agriculture and more agriculture. I think that this is an extremely narrow agenda, and I actually think that world trade deserves a very much broader approach, particularly in light of the fact that agriculture is a relatively small part of world trade if we compare it with industrial goods and services combined, for example. I also believe that it accounts for a relatively small part of the growth potential, particularly, perhaps, here in Europe. New opportunities for access to markets and new market openings globally, in particular for the trade in services, but also for industrial goods, are, I believe, most important for setting the wheels in motion and reviving global growth.
I would therefore like to ask the Commission a question. What does the Commission intend to do and what initiatives does it have underway to enable the broadening of the Doha Round in order to get us away from this tiresome situation in which we are all sitting around and reproaching everyone over agricultural trade, agricultural trade and only agricultural trade, when we know that what the world economy needs is a very much broader trading agenda that also includes trade in services and industrial trade. Thank you very much."@en1
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"Christofer Fjellner (PPE-DE )."1
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