Emma McClarkin MEP: “Commission must reprioritise and help East Midlands drink industry export to SE Asia”

East Midlands MEP Emma McClarkin, while speaking at the launch of a new Trade report yesterday, called for more to be done to open up trade links with South East Asia in particular for the beverage industry in the East Midlands.

The EU has concluded agreements with Vietnam and Singapore in recent times but these are yet to go through the ratification procedure; this still leaves Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia as “ongoing” and the EU has yet to instigate any negotiations with the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Brunei or Laos.

Strong trade deals between the EU and ASEAN countries is expected to benefit the UK economy to the tune of £3 billion every year, which accounts for almost £120 per household.

But it is in the Food and Drink sector where large gains can be made. For the East Midlands, currently Leicester based beer companies – like Everards that Miss McClarkin visited last year – experience an 857% tariff when trying to export to Malaysia. Sparkling wine also finds a tariff of 540% in Malaysia, while Indonesia charges on average a tariff of 150% on most wines and spirits.

By 2030 the ASEAN economy is expected to be larger than Japan’s and would become the fourth largest ‘single market’ behind the China, The EU and US. With an average growth rate of 5% and an exploding middle class that is expected to double, if not triple, in the next twenty years, it is a market with a lot of opportunity for UK exports.

Emma McClarkin said:

“South East Asia offers a wealth of opportunity for companies across the East Midlands. The EU has in recent times been sluggish in pushing for these agreements. I welcome the conclusions of negotiations with Vietnam and Singapore agreements, but we must not be complacent and should strive for more, these are after all only two out of the ten ASEAN countries.

“The EU Commission currently apportions 2.1% of its personnel to the trade department, making that the 17th largest out of 42 Departments. DG Trade therefore gets 32% less staff than the Communications Department, 54% less staff than the EU Enlargement Department and 71% less staff than the Department for Translation. “

Speaking on the Commission’s need to put trade at the top of the agenda Ms McClarkin said:

“It is important that Commission prioritises trade with more than words. The EU should be ensuring that enough resources and staff are assigned to Trade – this does not mean expanding any budgets or human resources – instead it means reassigning staff and redirecting budgets of the Commission to trade.”