Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-02-10-Speech-3-634"
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"en.20100210.33.3-634"2
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"Madam President, I, too, would like to start by welcoming the Commissioner. It is a pleasure to see you here. We have high expectations and hopes of you. You have an important task ahead of you.
A year ago, I was extremely concerned. When trade crashed and we were expecting world trade to develop in ways not seen since the Second World War, the situation was very serious indeed. The World Bank stated that 17 of the G20 countries had, in total, introduced 47 new trade barriers and tariffs. Russia imposed tariffs on cars, China restricted food imports, India banned imports of toys and Argentina introduced import licences for textiles and leather goods. It was almost like a protectionist arms race – a pattern from the 1930s that was worrying.
However, no trade war came about. I think it is important to stop and reflect on why that was. I think the main reason was the WTO, the global regulatory authority for trade, which forces countries to behave and not to resort to protectionism and populism. I would say that it is too early to declare the crisis over. The crisis has not passed. We all know that unemployment is highest late in the economic cycle – and it is unemployment that drives protectionism and populism. If we look around us right now, we can see that a number of countries have not yet come through the crisis; perhaps they even have the worst yet to come. I am therefore somewhat concerned when I listen to some members of the Council of Ministers, who do not say much about new markets and free trade but rather criticise globalisation and talk of protecting European companies and European jobs. That is not necessarily protectionism, but at times, they are only a hair’s breadth away. It is, in any event, an expression of a mercantilism that I believe to be damaging.
We should instead work together and think about how we can make Europe more competitive by making it more open. That would amount to considered action and leadership on our part. We need to think about what we can do to make sure that there are fewer barriers to trade, not more – especially when it comes to making decisions on Korea and mandatory origin labelling and when there are increasing demands for climate levies. We in Parliament need to reflect on that too."@en1
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