Ludford speaks out on NAFTA at City Debate

12.00.00am GMT Mon 29th Jan 2001

Speaking tonight (Monday) at the Futures and Options Association City Debate 2001, London's Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford will be putting the case for membership of the European Union, and pointing out the inadequacies of NAFTA.

In her speech she will say: "I'm taking as read that we accept the impossibility of actually belonging to both NAFTA and the EU. It's a simple legal fact that membership of NAFTA would mean withdrawal from the EU. The Tory Eurosceptics who propose it have been aptly termed 'the unelectable in pursuit of the undesirable'.

"In a broader sense pro-Europeans can 'have it all'. Choosing to be an enthusiastic and leading member of the EU is not a cue for anti-Americanism. But choosing NAFTA over the EU is explicitly anti-European; it means rejecting the logic of history, geography, security and prosperity because of an ideological obsession.

"We are at the beginning of Europe's best century so far. Europe's economic prospects are looking rather bright, perhaps more encouraging than America's. Without Britain, Europe cannot be complete. Let us focus on the opportunities for a confident Britain to pursue its political and economic goals with our neighbours with whom we do almost four times as much trade as with NAFTA. A better goal than the red herring of NAFTA would be for the UK to champion transatlantic and then global free trade which accepts social and environmental responsibility.

"As a full-hearted member of the EU, the UK can be a candid friend - one of the best friends - to the US, while living in the real world of the 21st century, not in 1776."