Mr. Gerard Monk:

I wish to pick up on something Mr. Murray mentioned in respect of trade. The European Union is negotiating a comprehensive suite of trade agreements across the world. Members are familiar with the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, with the United States but there also is an agreement with Japan, as well as the one with Canada that was politically agreed on last October. There also is a range of such agreements with ASEAN economies such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand, which all are economies that are growing rapidly. If we are going to expand the European Union's manufacturing base, we must have access, as well as more, cheaper and easier access to global markets. The objectives of the trade agreements are both to reduce tariffs - with some economies, such as that of the United States, they are very low - and to address the technical barriers to trade. I refer to different regulations third countries have to give a preference to their own domestic manufacturers, which impose higher costs on European Union manufacturers. For example, if one takes the car sector, in a trade agreement we will try to get the third country to recognise the international United Nations standard for car parts, which lowers the cost of our products entering into the global market. Picking up on another point in respect of the benefits of free trade agreements, in energy and raw materials, for example, cheaper and easier access to raw materials helps our manufacturing base and the objective of the free trade agreements would be to reduce or eliminate export taxes on raw materials, which would include energy, for example.