The EEA Agreement is the world’s best trade agreement

Oslo.Prime Minister Erna Solberg.Photo : Vidar Ruud / NTB scanpix

“The EEA Agreement bears Norwegian welfare,” Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H) said during her speech at the NHO’s annual conference on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister spent much of the speech praising the trade agreement, which turns 25 in 2019.

  • “If there is uncertainty about the EEA agreement, then not only uncertainty is created in the jobs in the export industries. Uncertainty is created for the entire Norwegian society,” Solberg said.
  • We must be aware of what poor trading conditions mean for Norway. Lower wages, fewer jobs and less public welfare, she warned.
  • Scary propaganda
    The center party’s Per Olaf Lundteigen says Solberg’s statements about poorer conditions without the EEA are scare propaganda.
  • “We have heard this before, from Brundtland and Jagland. Experience shows that the threats were without content,” he says to NTB.

Challenges
In the speech, the Prime Minister also emphasized that there are clear challenges in both the EEA agreement and international trade in general.

She pointed out the Nobel Peace Prize winner Dennis Mukwees statements that metals extracted from lawless parts of Congo are used in the electronics we use on a daily basis.

“Here at home, we have experienced how cross-border employment crime has challenged serious businesses and pushed the lowest of wages further down,” Solberg said further.

  • If we are to maintain the support of the EEA agreement as a bearer of our welfare, we must ensure that everyone benefits from the benefits.

The heading for this year’s NHO conference is We and the world.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today