Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-05-23-Speech-4-199-000"
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"en.20130523.30.4-199-000"2
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"Mr President, this report highlights an aspect of the European Union that even now, after half a century, is not widely understood, namely that it is not a free market but a customs union, none of whose members is free independently to sign a bilateral trade agreement with a third country. A month ago, Iceland – with a population of 320 000 people – signed a free trade agreement with China. Switzerland is negotiating something similar. However, we – a nation of 62 million, a trading maritime people whose colonising and enterprising energies have touched every continent – cannot sign a free trade agreement with China or with anyone else. We contracted out our commercial policy to the European Commission on 1 January 1973. We cannot, as a people without great natural resources, survive in the world except by buying and selling, and that means being where the customers are. Every continent in the world is now growing, except Europe. We find ourselves confined in a cramped and dwindling customs union."@en1
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