Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-02-10-Speech-3-633"
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"en.20100210.33.3-633"2
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"Madam President, quite a lot of broad questions have been asked which would, in fact, deserve much more time than I have.
Promoting a strong contribution to development goals is already an important part of the EU’s trade policy. The current multilateral negotiations are a development round. We have bilateral and regional negotiations with developing countries and autonomous preferences in favour of these countries. We help them to contribute to, and also tap into, the global economy so as to raise living standards in a way that delivers both greater political stability and social progress.
As regards social issues, I agree that trade must contribute to helping those people in our societies who suffered most from the economic crisis, especially those who lost their jobs. In this respect, I believe that we will need trade – and more trade – to preserve our social system of protection in Europe.
Our European model of society, the combination of a free economy with a high degree of social protection, must be preserved in a sustainable way, and this will take growth.
In sum, the Commission’s forthcoming EU 2020 strategy will support a full recovery from the crisis while speeding up the move towards a smarter and greener economy. Open trade policy will be an important element, both as a contribution to European economic recovery and as a vector for the external projection of our principles: openness, social and environmental protection and sustainability, and constructive engagement on the world scene.
Putting the right strategy in place will naturally involve working closely with Parliament as well as the Council and other stakeholders, and I look forward to your cooperation in building a shared agenda.
I suggest focusing in my initial reply on the contribution of trade policy to economic recovery. First, as regards the impact of the crisis on trade, we should be relieved that world trade only decreased by 10%. This did not happen by chance, but is a result of strong political will expressed at various G20 summits. It is also the result of systematic monitoring of trade restrictive measures by the WTO, the OECD and the Commission.
By and large, only a few countries resorted to trade protectionism. The international community thus avoided a protectionist downward spiral of the kind witnessed at the time of the Great Depression. In order to maintain this, it is important to remain extremely vigilant. Where protectionist or trade-restrictive measures are identified, we will take action against them with all available trade tools, such as our market-access strategy or even the WTO dispute-settlement mechanism.
External sources of growth will be crucial to EU economic recovery. I therefore concur with you that European industry should target the new and fast-growing emerging markets.
Through our trade policy, we can help them to achieve this by further opening up these markets and reducing all sorts of barriers to trade and investment.
This will be achieved through the free trade agreements that we are currently negotiating and by deepening trade and economic partnerships with key trading partners such as, for example, the US and China, where the TEC and the high-level dialogue have already laid solid foundations. This will be a priority for me as Trade Commissioner.
Over the coming weeks, the Commission will put together the EU’s new common agenda for sustainable growth and recovery via the EU 2020 strategy. This strategy will have an effective external dimension in which trade policy plays a key role.
In a globalised world, the EU 2020 strategy should be a vector to promote openness and constructive international economic engagement. This will also be a central theme of a communication on future trade-policy priorities that I intend to present later this year.
But trade policy is about more than just competitiveness and growth. It is also about projecting our values worldwide and it must also duly integrate the development dimension of trade."@en1
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