Richard Dick, president of British electroctechnical manufacturing association BEAMA, has taken an Orgalime delegation (led by president Martine Clement and president-elect Edward Krubasik) to brief Ian Pearson, under-secretary of state for trade, on European engineering industry expectations from the UK’s EU Council Presidency. The delegation revealed that there was widespread industrial support across Europe for prime minister Blair’s stance on taking up the presidency, but warned that failure to keep a significant manufacturing base within Europe would lead to the loss of jobs in service industries as well.
The comments were well received with much common thinking on the importance of manufacturing and the need to complete the Doha round of the WTO.
