Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-11-30-Speech-3-042"
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"en.20051130.10.3-042"2
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"Mr President, it is an unpopular thought here, but perhaps we should say a few nice words about the United States of America. After all, that country has made a tremendous offer: it has put the offer on the table; it has said it is prepared to make big cuts in agricultural subsidies; it has said it is prepared to make major tariff reductions on agricultural goods and it has challenged the European Union to match the offer. Now I think that there is a big change in Washington, the free trade arguments are winning, but are we going to play the game? Well, Mr Mandelson has made it clear already that we are not going to play the game. As Pascal Lamy has said, the US proposal was five times as ambitious as the EU’s response. Now whether this is the European Union speaking, or whether it is the undue French influence on trade policy, I am not sure.
However, all of it makes me think, because just last weekend there was a Commonwealth conference. A third of the world’s population was represented there and they were asking Mr Blair for a trade deal. But Mr Blair had to say there was nothing he could do, because the British do not have a voice – that is all sorted out by Mandelson over in Brussels, and he speaks for all 25 countries.
I firmly believe that if there was an independent British voice – and I am talking here about the world’s third largest trading nation – at the WTO next month, it could actually speak up for the Third World. I hope Mr Blair crowns his Presidency by pulling Britain out of the common commercial policy and going in next month himself to speak at the WTO."@en1
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