On Tuesday 8 November the French foreign trade minister, Matthias Fekl, unveiled a raft of proposals in Paris that he will soon be sending to his European counterparts and the European Commission with a view to making the EU’s trade policy more transparent and shifting it into a more sustainable development approach.
The recent crisis around the EU-Canada free trade deal, CETA, shows that public opinion does not trust the EU’s trade policy due to rising inequality in the EU itself and greater globalisation, Fekl says. This mistrust has now given way to rejection and is a threat to democratic choices and the existence of this common trading policy, he adds. Fekl therefore proposes rethinking the policy’s aims and moving it towards the negotiation of ‘sustainable’ trade deals, both in terms of the method and the content of the negotiations in order to deal with the three-pronged challenge of democracy, social affairs and the environment.
Fekl recommends a change in methods to introduce more transparency, based on: - the publication of all trade negotiating mandates except where exceptions are duly justified; - the inclusion of review and expiry clauses in negotiating mandates; - the publication of the results of Council work at both expert and minister level; - and the publication of negotiating teams and the strengthening of obligations when it comes to preventing conflicts of interest.
In order to make institutions more responsible, Fekl suggests boosting the human resources allocated (he says that 400 officials deal with the United States’ trade policy, compared with fewer than 200 for the EU). He recommends that the European Commission justify each trade negotiation before its launch by publishing at least three social and economic studies on a pluralist basis at the scientific level and in terms of schools of thought, and by holding online consultations. He also proposes boosting the Council of Ministers’ involvement by holding more regular meetings.
Fekl recommends greater openness in trade policy through the participation of parliamentarians on the negotiating table, as happens in the United States, by guaranteeing access to documents from the start of the talks and by stating which documents will be open to consultation by parliamentarians and citizens. He recommends the establishment at EU level of a monitoring committee for each trade negotiation that would include civil society representatives.
The second aim of the reform proposals is to adjust the objective of trade agreements to focus on sustainable development. To this end, Fekl recommends that agreements should protect the right of states to regulate by systematically adding a public investment court system (ICS) for settling disputes between investors and states. He proposes penalising infringements of social and environmental rights in free trade deals by subjecting their sustainable development chapters to the mechanism for settling differences among countries. Fekl suggests guaranteeing reciprocity through a raft of updated trade defence instruments and a reciprocity mechanism for the opening of public procurement. Finally, he suggests an ex ante assessment of the impact of each agreement on the economic and social level, industry-by-industry and by geographic zone, and at the environmental level, by laying down the compensation measures to be introduced.
The final aim of the French minister’s proposals is to boost solidarity among member states by updating the European Globalisation Fund, raising its budget (currently €150 million a year, five times less than the United States’ Trade Adjustment Assistance) and simplifying eligibility criteria, and also through the launch of an ambitious EU industrial policy that guides investment in Europe sustainably in the direction of energy transition and the new industrial challenges. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)