Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-02-10-Speech-3-671"
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"en.20100210.34.3-671"2
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"Mr President, I believe that this Korean free trade agreement is important for three reasons. Firstly, as you have indicated, it is a win-win deal for Korea and for the European Union economies. It is good for consumers, it is good for jobs and, as you rightly say, it has a potential to add 19 billion to our trade flows with Korea.
Secondly though, given the debate we have just had, in the context of the current global financial crisis, it sets a very positive example. If two large economies like the European Union and Korea can agree a free trade agreement, it sets an impetus for other partners. Japan, for example, is showing much more interest in economic relations with the European Union than it was just a few years ago and partly that is due to the Korean deal.
Suddenly, on the other side, the Koreans are finding the US is now coming back, knocking on their door, wanting to get the KORUS agreement moving again.
The third reason – more parochially, but I hope colleagues in the House will bear this in mind – is that it is important for Parliament because many of the demands we made in my report have been met by the Commission, and time does not permit me to go through them all but I want to just give you three or four examples.
Firstly, we said in my report that we needed much better access to the Korean agricultural market. Well, Korean agricultural tariffs are going to come down by 75% over the first seven years of this agreement; we wanted our geographical indicators protected, our Whisky, our Champagnes, our wines, our hams and so on are going to be protected in Korea as a result of this agreement. And they are not, as one of my colleagues indicated, insignificant. Scottish whisky sells GBP 137 million worth a year into the Korean market already so with this deal, we could see a significant increase.
We called for non-tariff barriers to be tackled and this will be of particular benefit to the automobile industry. We wanted improved trade in environmental goods. Well, under this deal, environmental trade in goods and services will, after three years, have virtually duty-free access to the Korean market and their environmental goods and services duty-free access to our market.
We asked as a Parliament for improved social and environmental standards. Well, Korea, since the negotiations have been initialled, has signed four ILO Conventions and their trade and sustainable development forum is going to be established as a result of this agreement allowing the civil partners in Korea to ensure that greater market opening is accompanied by labour and environmental standards improvements.
All of these things, Parliament asked for. It would be ludicrous and perverse for us to turn our back on them, having achieved them.
Is this a perfect deal? Well, of course it is not. Are there things in it that I would not want in it, of course there are, but negotiations mean that you have to come and go, but on balance, is it a good deal for Europe? Yes. Is it a good deal for Korea? Yes. Is it a good deal, potentially, for the world economy? Yes. So we should not shilly-shally on this: we should get on and sign it."@en1
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