Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-10-23-Speech-2-641-000"
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"en.20121023.49.2-641-000"2
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". – Mr President, in principle we strongly favour a trade treaty with Japan, but it has to be fair to both sides. At the moment Japan retains numerous non-tariff barriers. It is very hard for a foreign company to acquire a company in Japan, and there can be undue political influence. The effect is that, while Japan is always keen to export its own goods, it remains a complicated country in which to do business.
Nonetheless, the gross domestic product of Japan is larger than that of France, Belgium and Italy combined. A meaningful trade agreement would be good for everybody. However, as my colleague Mr Schulz has mentioned, there are signs that the French and German automobile manufacturers and their lobbyists are seeking to frustrate, or otherwise limit, an EU-Japan trade agreement. That would be wrong.
This brings me to an important related point. Because there are so many different trade interests in the 27 Member States, all of which have to be satisfied in some measure, it actually makes it significantly more difficult for the EU as an entity to conclude trade agreements than it would be for a single nation state on its own. Not easier, as is wrongly - and often - asserted. That is why, for example, Switzerland, with a gross domestic product less than one sixth of that of the UK alone, has had its trade agreement in place with Japan since December 2009, while this evening we are just talking about one."@en1
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