Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-05-09-Speech-1-170-000"
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"en.20110509.21.1-170-000"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the European Council’s request to open negotiations with Japan on the conclusion of a free trade agreement must be assessed very carefully. We therefore welcome the Commissioner’s cautious approach to this issue and we call on Parliament as a whole to follow that approach, which inspired our group’s motion for a resolution.
The new Japanese Government has demonstrated – at least verbally – its willingness to open up its market, one of the most closed markets in the developed world. This positive attitude must be verified in practice, especially with regard to the 27 non-tariff barriers identified by the European Union, which must be lowered so that we can open negotiations with Japan and make them one of the priorities of our trade policy. We believe that improving these relations can help make Europe more competitive, since Japan accounts for 9% of world GDP, or over 35% when its GDP is added to our own.
Today, however, we cannot adopt resolutions unless they make the opening of free trade agreement negotiations subject to specific, binding and verifiable conditions; namely, that there will be genuine reciprocity and a proper impact assessment.
Firstly, Japan’s protectionist policy in the automotive sector concerns us, because there is an imbalance between exports and imports. Secondly, we wish to raise the issue of non-tariff barriers. I am talking about a whole range of standards, from health and plant health measures to technical standards – especially in the agricultural and automotive sectors – export subsidy rules, customs checks and factors allowing for counterfeiting and also triangular trade with China and Korea.
To conclude, ladies and gentlemen, we ask that before Europe declares itself willing to open negotiations on the conclusion of a free trade agreement, it resolutely defines the Community interest that it intends to protect and specifies the areas in which it will request reciprocity from Japan. We hope that the Commission will take these comments of ours on board."@en1
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