Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-02-10-Speech-3-637"
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"en.20100210.33.3-637"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, thank you for having put the fantasy of crisis-related protectionism into its proper context. I think that, in the context of a debate, it is wise of you to point out that a world war linked to the revival of protectionism is not about to break out.
Now, I almost want to reverse the issue. For me, the issue is not ultimately about what effects the economic crisis has on trade, but more fundamentally about what effects trade, and specifically the trade policies undertaken for 20 years, have on the crisis we are experiencing today.
In a way, the food crisis that we experienced two and a half years ago arrived before the financial crisis, and it was indeed a crisis of the world agricultural markets. In the same way, we keep being told that liberalising trade with China is good for us. I believe that, at some point, unless we incorporate social issues, monetary issues, fiscal issues and, of course, environmental issues, China will have not just a comparative advantage over Europe, it will have an absolute advantage over it.
It follows that, in all the national debates – and, as a key figure on the Belgian scene, you will know this – all the political parties are now discovering that it is impossible, in a globalised world, to manage social dumping, environmental dumping, monetary dumping and fiscal dumping.
Similarly, we might consider that the strategy that all us Europeans expected after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which was to say ‘social democracy will come about through trade’, is not working, as we can see with the example of China.
Commissioner, you have cited the Lisbon Strategy, innovation, the green economy, and you know that this European strategy is now a failure. Indeed, if we do not mainstream the Lisbon Strategy before the Global Europe strategy, we may wonder what industrial sectors Europe will still have. Where is the definition of the industrial choices, the agricultural choices, the economic choices and, of course, the social and environmental choices that we are making throughout Europe, so that we can learn how trade works with the rest of the world? Until we define these choices, we shall be pursuing a strategy of failure.
I have a more specific question: on 4 February 2010, a meeting of the WTO’s Committee on Trade in Financial Services was held, and it focused specifically on the challenges presented by the financial crisis and the liberalisation of financial services. Can you tell us what the outcome of that meeting was and what your opinion is on this matter, if you were able to follow it?"@en1
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