Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) expressed contrasting views in their debate with the European Commission’s chief negotiator on the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment with China (CAI), Maria Martin-Prat, on Wednesday 24 February.
The rapporteur on the text, Iuliu Winkler (EPP, Romania), congratulated the Commission on its work and was pleased to address the urgent need to rebalance market access between the EU and China through the agreement: “The agreement rebalances not only the bilateral relationship, but also relations on the international scene. Major players already have an agreement with China”, he said.
However, the majority of his colleagues expressed a very different opinion on the subject. “Are our economic interests really defended in this agreement?”, asked Marie-Pierre Vedrenne (Renew Europe, France), shadow rapporteur. Among the political groups, several criticise the lack of a regulation on investment protection.
The Commission had already announced that a parallel agreement would be negotiated with China on this issue within the next 2 years. “China is not on the same line as us at the moment. We continue to push for a multilateral investment court”, said Ms Martin-Prat.
Due diligence. Several MEPs consider that the agreement should not precede the finalisation and adoption of legislation on corporate due diligence. “This should be a fundamental point, even before we start discussing the investment agreement with China”, insisted Kathleen Van Brempt (S&D, Belgium).
Luxembourg MEP Christophe Hansen (EPP) regretted that the European Commission’s communication on the trade policy review did not provide for the creation of a special working party on China. Parliament had indeed requested this in the resolution adopted in November 2020 on the trade policy review.
In a second meeting with the INTA committee a few hours later, the European Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, spoke on this point: “The UK taskforce was created to redress unprecedented situation, so it was quite unique. When discussing other countries, it is true that we need coordinated approach, but it is equally so with the US, Turkey, etc. So in essence we are not proposing a taskforce for every country”, he replied to Mr Hansen’s repeated request.
Taiwan. Many MEPs asked Commissioner Dombrovskis whether the Commission planned to start negotiations with Taiwan on an investment agreement. “The trade policy review from 2015 was clear about the ambition to start negotiations for an investment agreement with Taiwan. What are the next steps on that?”, asked Karin Karlsbro (Renew Europe, Sweden).
The Commissioner said that these negotiations were not envisaged at the moment. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)