Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-13-Speech-3-372"
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"en.20050413.23.3-372"2
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".
Mr President, I welcome the opportunity to debate fiscal and environmental dumping with regard to British Cellophane in Bridgwater. British Cellophane has had a long and honourable history spanning more than 50 years. It has an enormous background of industrial muscle and might in Bridgwater. Bridgwater is also one of the leading industrial towns in the West Country.
Over the long term, the workforce at British Cellophane has been reduced but it has always had an outstanding productivity level, an outstanding relationship with its employees and has given outstanding help to the town at all levels.
Cellophane is a massively important commodity throughout the world. British Cellophane produces approximately 60 000 tonnes per year. The commodity has been produced in highly productive, motivated and profitable plants. In the past few years the company has changed dramatically: it was bought by Candell Investments and I should like to talk about three of its five plants.
Two plants are in Britain and one is in America. The two in Britain are productive, motivated plants, one in the north and one in Bridgwater. I wish to dwell on the third plant in Kansas.
Kansas State legislators have spent an enormous amount of money to keep the plant there. We are talking about millions of dollars, not a few hundred thousand. They voted publicly to give public money to the plant and they have also been given a five-year environmental holiday to further undermine British Cellophane’s prospects. It does not stop there. The plant is unproductive and does not make a profit. Why would one give money to a plant that does not make a profit and is not productive, whether it is in China, Australia or America?
Three hundred UK jobs in a profitable, highly productive plant are being put under threat by a plant that does not meet the WTO rules. Every year British Cellophane puts approximately GBP 20 million into the economy from wages, direct and indirect goods. We are talking about a profitable and highly productive plant. It has done everything to change and it out-performs the Americans by far. It produces more and better quality goods. The plant has done everything to stay profitable. We should not allow it to be sacrificed simply because an American plant can get away with something that we cannot.
The subsidies are unfair trade, involve unfair dumping and the use of unfair competition against profitable plants. We should not allow this to happen. If this is a world of free trade, the World Trade Organization should be asked to consider this matter. I ask the Commission to take this up urgently. There is cross-party support for this. I believe that the WTO should act. I urge the Commission to take up the case."@en1
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