The missing piece in the EU’s trade policy is development, according to the think tank Europe Jacques Delors. In a policy paper published on 2 June, it points out that in recent years many developing countries have pointed the finger at European environmental legislation that affects trade (see EUROPE 13197/21).
For Europe Jacques Delors, the EU must take these remarks into account at all costs. This will require bilateral and plurilateral discussions with those partners who will be most negatively affected by instruments such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism or the regulation against imported deforestation.
On the multilateral front, Europe Jacques Delors had already suggested the creation of a “comparability forum” at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to exchange views on environmental and trade measures.
Beyond that, the EU needs to tailor its bilateral relations, according to the think tank. To do this, it could distinguish between two groups of third countries: the major emerging markets and the least developed countries. With the latter, the EU should develop partnerships on trade and the environment, for example.
To go further, it could also lower certain sanitary and phytosanitary requirements for imports from the least developed countries, suggest the authors of the document. This would not make a big difference in terms of the products on the European market, but would largely benefit the most vulnerable countries, as Europe Jacques Delors explains.
The deployment of financial resources for climate-related projects, access to green technologies for the least developed countries, and the transparency and predictability of future European legislation are also addressed by the think tank.
See the document: https://aeur.eu/f/7ed (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)