The political groups in the European Parliament made their position known to EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis on the trade policy review during a plenary debate on Tuesday 24 November.
On the right, the MEPs of the EPP group are in favour of a market that is above all open. Closer ties with the United States and China are among the group's priorities. “We need to create new free trade agreements to get out of this. We need to reduce burdens rather than impose new ones, such as the duty of care”, argued the Hungarian MEP Enikő Győri (EPP).
The Social Democrats, the radical left and the Greens/EFA, on the other hand, advocate rules that enforce the sustainable development goals, accompanied by clear and effective sanctions. “These aspects must be mandatory in all our trade agreements”, insisted Agnes Jongerius (S&D, Netherlands).
The Renew Europe group called for consideration to be given to the Franco-Dutch working document aimed at placing sustainable development at the centre of the Union's trade policy (see EUROPE 12480/14).
Relations with China. On this subject, members are divided into two camps.
On the one hand, groups such as the EPP, whose priority is to make the EU a key player on the world market and for whom discussions to open the Chinese market to Europeans must be continued and accelerated. Christophe Hansen (EPP, Luxembourg) said that setting up a working group on China would help the negotiations while monitoring respect for human rights. That provision is the subject of a compromise amendment to the draft resolution.
On the other hand, several groups consider China to be too far away from European standards in terms of working conditions, environmental objectives and respect for human rights. For MEP Svenja Hahn (Renew Europe, Germany), “we have to confront countries like China because they violate rights and attack the foundations of democracy. We must fight against dumping”. Saskia Bricmont (Greens/EFA, Belgium) went even further: “we must prohibit access to markets whose products are the result of forced and child labour”.
Draft resolution. At the Committee on International Trade (INTA) on 9 November, MEPs approved a series of compromise amendments that reflect both the EPP's concerns and the demands of the other groups. They focus in particular on the need to link future trade rules to sanctions against partner countries. They also make it a point of honour to promote trade as much as possible and to avoid trade barriers where the partners supply a large volume of raw materials to European companies.
The trade commissioner follows the same line of compromise and balance as the MEPs. He has thus named the guideline for future trade policy: “open strategic autonomy”. He told the European Parliament that he would present the Commission's proposal on the review of trade policy to the INTA Committee at the beginning of 2021.
The motion for a resolution on the trade policy review will be put to the vote in plenary on Thursday 26 November. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)