BELGIUM: European metal workers and ACEA warn on WTO

Thu 31 Jul 2008
The European metal workers and the automobile industry have voiced a warning about the content of the pending compromise in the Doha round trade negotiations. They say that the draft agreement for Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) would open up the EU market for non-European producers without offering the European industry any meaningful improvement of market access to major emerging economies.

"The lack of improvement in market access to emerging and developing countries for the foreseeable future is against the original goals of the current Doha Round and will undermine the competitiveness of the EU industries, putting pressure on production costs and employment", said Peter Scherrer, General Secretary of the European Metalworkers' Federation (EMF). "The result could be major job losses in the EU, at the level of the manufacturers, but also in the supply chain."

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"The currently discussed unfair and imbalanced trade deal would leave the EU industry no other choice than to revise its future investments (in new models and R&D) to locations outside EU that are more cost efficient", said Ivan Hodac, Secretary General of the European auto industry trade association ACEA. "Also, additional investments will have to be made in major emerging economies, as their markets will remain closed to imports through the use of flexibilities and the maintaining of peak tariffs. The EU would clearly loose out as location for manufacturing."

ACEA said it wants a thorough review of the pending Doha compromise in order to achieve reciprocal market access in developed, emerging and developing countries, and a long-term solution to eliminating the so-called 'flexibilities' and 'non-tariff barriers'.

Source: http://www.just-auto.com/article.aspx?id=95558