Brussels, 26/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The approval given on Wednesday by the international trade committee of the European Parliament to the compromise reached in trialogue with the European Commission and the Council on the safeguard clause of the bilateral EU-South Korea free trade agreement is a further step towards its ratification. The trade pact may enter into force on 1 July.
In its adoption, on 26 January, of the report by Pablo Zalba Bideguain (EPP, Spain) on the draft regulation concerning the application of the safeguard clause to the EU-South Korea free trade agreement, thus confirming the agreement reached in trialogue on 16 December, the international trade committee has paved the way for the Parliament's ratification of the agreement, which was concluded in October 2009 and formally signed in October last year. The international trade committee will take position on 7 February on the agreement as a whole, when it votes on the report by Robert Sturdy (ECR, UK). The Zalba Bideguain and Sturdy reports will then be put to the vote of the plenary assembly of mid-February. In the event of positive votes, the EU-South Korea free trade agreement and the regulation on the safeguards will enter into force in July.
The compromise on the safeguard measures will allow the Parliament to lift its reservations over the agreement. The safeguard clause relating to the provisions reinforced by the MEPs will help better to defend the interests of European industry, particularly the automotive and electronics sectors, from the threat of a massive influx of imports from South Korea. “We wanted an agreement but not at any price, and the conditions of the safeguard clause to protect EU industries were essential to our final assessment. Three months of negotiations have been necessary to obtain the most effective and easy-to-apply protection mechanism. We have obtained these conditions which make the whole agreement more attractive to European industry”, Zalba Bideguain said in a press release.
The safeguard clause will allow the EU to suspend the removal of customs duty or to increase it temporarily if the tariff liberalisation leads to an excessive increase in South Korean exports, causing or threatening to cause major harm to European producers. The MEPs brought a range of modifications to the legislative document put on the table by the Commission, elements of which will better protect European industry: - the Parliament, but also the industry, will be entitled to call on the Commission to open an investigation which could lead to the clause being triggered, and the Commission will be able to look at a broader range of elements when seeking to determine whether this harm exists; - the definition of products entering the scope of application of the safeguard clause has been clarified, which is vitally important for the automotive industry; - the Commission will bring in monitoring measures, particularly for the most sensitive sectors, in the event of increases of imports centring on one or more member states of the EU; - checks will be reinforced, particularly in the case of products sensitive to the provisions on duty drawback. Information on the monitoring of these products will be communicated to the Parliament and Council and to industry, on a regular basis; - the Parliament has managed to extend the list of relevant factors to be taken into account by the European executive in the event of an investigation to ascertain whether harm has been caused; - the Parliament has also brought in the vital element of compensation, which will allow member states requesting aid under the European globalisation adjustment fund to invoke the safeguard clause; - the Commission will have to report to the stakeholders on all decisions related to the safeguard, as well as on EU-South Korea trade statistics; - a new online platform will be set up to facilitate the exchange of information between the Commission and interested parties and speed up processes; - lastly, any changes made to the free-trade agreement recently concluded between South Korea and the United States will automatically apply to the free-trade agreement entered into with the EU. (E.H./transl.fl)