South Korean Free Trade

6th - 10th September 2010 - Strasbourg

MEPs will vote on the safeguard clause to be built into the EU's Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with South Korea. The clause enables the EU to reintroduce Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to areas where it is felt liberalisation is causing serious injury to EU industry.

The parliament will only vote on its amendments to the proposal this week, thus deferring a final legislative resolution to a future session, following further negotiations with the Council of Ministers.

Robert Sturdy MEP is the parliament's rapporteur on the overall Free Trade Agreement with Korea. He would like to see this matter reach a satisfactory conclusion swiftly so that European businesses and consumers can begin to feel the enormous benefits of this trade liberalisation as soon as possible. He also believes that the conclusion of this FTA sends a clear message that the EU will not resort to protectionism as a result of the economic crisis.

Vote: Tuesday @ 12.00

Contact

ECR enquiries: James Holtum on +32 473 861762
British delegation: Alex Benjamin on +32 476 056450
Polish delegation: Jakub Piasecki on +32 470 504614
Czech delegation: Jan Krelina on +32 493 214346
Dutch delegation: Maurits van Stuijvenberg on +31 6 52 24 44 64