Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-08-Speech-4-167"
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"en.20080508.21.4-167"2
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"Madam President, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to give my explanation of vote on the Ford report on the agreement with ASEAN.
In general I think we prefer to improve and increase international trade through the multilateral framework of the World Trade Organisation, but I think we have to recognise the role that bilaterals play in extending trade and the benefits of globalisation throughout the world.
I thought it was particularly important in this report that we highlighted human rights issues. Generally I am rather sceptical when we do this, because quite often it is an excuse for protectionism against products from other countries. But in this context it is particularly appropriate, given that Burma is a member of ASEAN.
However, I did have a real problem with this, because I did initially put an amendment to committee, which was accepted, saying that if particular ASEAN countries did not want to be part of this agreement, we should still go ahead with agreements with those countries that did want to. We should not let the most protectionist country hold up agreements.
Unfortunately the EU is hell-bent on trade-block-to-trade-block negotiations, and for this reason I abstained."@en1
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