we follow very closely the effects of the financial crisis on our industrial sectors including of course the textile and clothing sector an important and strong industry in the european union
we reacted to this crisis by setting up the european recovery plan complemented by the european globalisation adjustment fund and the temporary community framework for state aid matters
these measures have also been relevant for the textile and clothing industry for instance the globalisation fund support has been used to reintegrate workers laid off in mostly small and medium-sized enterprises of the sector in italy malta spain portugal lithuania and belgium
the textile and clothing sector comes from decades of managed trade
since early two thousand and nine trade in this sector has been fully liberalised
the sector has lived up to the challenge of liberalisation and has undertaken a process of restructuring and modernisation which has not been easy
the sector has reduced mass production and concentrated on products with higher value added and technological content
today european textiles are known in the world for their innovation and technical performance
the sector has been evolving successfully and has maintained a world-class export performance
market access issues are therefore a priority for it and i am happy that our renewed market access strategy has been taken up by this industry with positive results
and of course in our trade negotiations such as the free trade agreement with korea or the multilateral trade talks we do take into account the sensitivities of the different industrial sectors including the textile sector and we aim for balanced deals
