Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-13-Speech-3-369"
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"en.20050413.23.3-369"2
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".
Mr President, as the Commission will be aware, we have almost 300 jobs at risk at the British cellophane plant in Bridgwater in my constituency in the United Kingdom. This plant has been taken over by a company called Innovia, which currently has plants in Kansas, Carlisle and Bridgwater. What is being proposed threatens to rip the heart out of the town of Bridgwater; allowing for suppliers to the company, almost one thousand jobs are at risk in the area.
Tonight we have an almost unprecedented request from all parties – Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat – in the region and in the United Kingdom, who are united in their reaction to this appalling decision by Innovia and are asking for the Commission’s help and assistance.
What leads the company to make this decision? The plant in Kansas has never in its history made a profit; the plant in Bridgwater has never in its history made a loss. But we have a proposal to close Bridgwater. Why? Because the State of Kansas, led by a Democratic majority, who, in spite of the opposition of Republicans in the State House of Representatives and the State Senate, has offered Innovia certain things. The first is a bribe of USD 2 million to shift jobs from the European Union to the United States. The second is a five-year tax holiday, which means that all the taxes paid by the workforce will be paid back to the company over the next five years. And, most interestingly, it has offered a suspension of environmental regulations, which will allow the cellophane to be produced cheaply and re-exported back to the European Union.
I should like to ask the Commission whether these financial bribes are allowable under WTO rules. If not, will it raise the issue with the US Government? What will be done when Innovia produces cellophane in Kansas and dumps it back on the European market? How will the Commission tackle that problem? Also, while I agree that at the moment the WTO rules do not forbid environmental dumping, and while we recognise that different countries may have environmental standards that differ from ours, we object to the suspension of those different standards, something we are increasingly likely to see because of the Kyoto Agreement.
In the European scheme of things, this is comparatively small beer. Nevertheless, it is very important for the region. It is also very important in terms of the precedent it sets for the future, because if the United States, its companies and its State governments can get away with this on one occasion, there is absolutely no reason why they will not do it again and again. Therefore, this is an important issue of principle that the Commission needs to take seriously, and I expect some action."@en1
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