Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-16-Speech-1-140"
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"en.20060116.17.1-140"2
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"Mr President, Mr Mandelson, five lessons have been learnt from the Hong Kong Summit.
Firstly, there is a flaw in our negotiating method. One year prior to the Summit, we make agricultural concessions by revising the CAP. The outcome: when you arrive at the negotiating table, whatever talent you may have – and it is immense – you no longer have room for manœuvre, unless you cross the red line on agriculture.
Secondly, Hong Kong validates Seattle and Cancun. Despite the fact that agriculture only amounts to 5% of world trade in goods and services, it is undoubtedly the Ricardian comparative advantage of Europe, or why else would it be at the centre of the war that, for example, Brazil wages on us at every summit?
Thirdly, developing countries such as Mexico criticise the ostensibly generous reduction in customs duties aimed at promoting market access because these countries have understood all too well that the customs ‘gift’ is not intended for the poor, but for companies from the North manufacturing their products among the poor, for example in Bangladesh or Vietnam.
Fourthly, this reduction in customs duties, while a nice gesture in political terms, is difficult to manage technically. Proof of this is the fact that, after 20 years of mathematical formulas – Swiss formula or otherwise - the Hong Kong declaration is unable to find a solution.
This amounts to saying – and this is my fifth and final point – that the road to a reduction in customs duties is a dead end that should be consigned to the past. The modern solution consists of deductible customs duties in the form of customs credits or drawing rights provided by the importing State to the exporting State, credit equal to the total amounts of the customs duties levied on the exporter’s goods.
Mr Mandelson, if you were to achieve that, you would be Harry Potter, you would have succeeded in marrying together the theories of both Ricardo and Frederick List, you would have resolved the problem of global economic imbalances and you would have protected the interests of the poor and those of the rich, free trade and our social model in one fell swoop."@en1
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