After the European Trade Ministers (see EUROPE 12468/15), European Commissioner Phil Hogan and the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) in turn laid the first elements of a European trade response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic on Tuesday 21 April.
In a first meeting by videoconference, MEPs drew initial lessons for the short and medium term.
The pandemic “has changed the global picture in relation to everything”, said Mr Hogan, convinced that the INTA commission will “play a constructive role, an active role”. He confirmed that the Commission had brought forward the review of trade policy from 2021 to 2020 in order to draw lessons from the health crisis as soon as possible.
For their part, some Member States have begun analytical work, with the Netherlands, Sweden and Ireland having already published ideas.
Unsurprisingly, Members from several political groups deplored Europe’s dependence on the production of medical and pharmaceutical equipment, calling on the Commission to adjust, in particular, its industrial policy along these lines.
“We should reduce our trade dependencies that make us vulnerable”: diversification of production chains and their greater resilience are necessary, the Commissioner acknowledged. But the Union will continue to pursue an open and fair trade policy. “Self-sufficiency is not an option [...] given the complexity of our supply chains”, he warned.
Mr Hogan also envisages strengthening the EU’s toolbox to protect it against unfair practices from non-Member States. “There are many instruments [that] now can be deployed in 2020”, he said, such as foreign investment screening or the international instrument on public procurement.
Finally, according to the Commissioner, work needs to be done to improve multilateral rules at the WTO, in line with the new realities of the digital economy and climate action.
Kathleen Van Brempt (S&D, Belgium) called on the EU to promote an international agreement within the WHO and WTO to agree on duty-free trade in products needed to combat COVID-19. A proposal put forward at the Trade Council (see EUROPE 12468/15).
We need to see what we can do better at European level than at national level, Mr Hogan also pointed out, underlining the limits of European competence in health. In his view, European coordination can make a difference, particularly when it comes to multiplying the number of industrial players to produce essential health protection equipment.
Restrictions on exports to the EU
Mr Hogan also returned to the objectives and motivations of the regulation which makes the export of certain medical equipment subject to authorisation (see EUROPE 12447/7).
“We believe the measures were effective”, he said, “not least in ensuring a uniform approach across the Union, thus removing export restrictions and authorisation requirements imposed at Member State level largely”.
As these measures expire on 25 April, the Commission has sent the Member States its new regulatory proposal (see EUROPE 12467/7).
Since the publication of this regulation, Germany has lifted its restrictions, Italy still bans the export of personal protective equipment and respirators, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria do the same for masks and Belgium for essential products, Mr Hogan listed. (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)