Brussels, 04/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - Stopping off in Brussels last week between his trips to Asia and Latin America (see EUROPE of 2 March, p.17), Commissioner Pascal Lamy commented on current events in a meeting with MEPs. An overview:
Steel. In the run-up to the verdict of the President of the United States on measures to be taken to protect the US steel industry (expected by Wednesday), Mr Lamy has not abandoned hope that he will drop the idea, saying that the EU was relentless in its efforts, refusing to accept a "US problem", adding that if steel became a problem, the EU would consider all the instruments available at the WTO, starting with the safeguard clause.
Relations with the US. There are good reasons for the United States to maintain their multilateral commitments, but they are not always enough to resist internal protectionist pressures strongly applied by local political interests. In terms of returning to a wiser rhythm of EU/US summits, he said that at the Council some Member States had stressed that a number of platforms be held during the Presidency, but the decision had finally been taken to only hold one summit a year, since the important thing was for strong impetus to be given to a particular project or issue. Mr Lamy himself had appealed for the meetings to focus on specific issues rather than have agendas as long as telephone directories.
New World Trade Organisation (WTO) Trade Round. The EU plans to keep in the frontline, implying that the European proposals will be presented in Geneva by the summer. There are no priorities, we'll be making progress in all areas at the same time and resist any attempts to progress in one area quicker than another, he said, telling MEPs that they didn't have any decision-making powers in this respect. They regretted this, as did he, encouraging them to draw this to the attention of the Members of the Convention on the future of Europe. The Doha outcome is sufficiently close to our objectives, he commented. Negotiations on the "Singapore" subjects will not start until the first half of 2003 but are already part of the Trade Round, meaning that if there is no result for investment and facilitating trade, there will be no result for the entire package. Mr Lamy said that it was not a matter of repeating the MAI saga (Multilateral Agreement on Investment) that had clearly demonstrated that being too perfectionist achieved nothing. Facilitating trade (in other words, alleviating the red tape surrounding trade) is an important issue and Mr Lamy would be spending a whole day on it with Commissioner Bolkestein in a big European port city. Specific issues like sampling, certification and the responsibilities of exporters (and people working with exporters) will cause friction at times, particularly with the United States, he said, but these issues will come up and no doubt at some point people responsible for trade will have to move closer to those dealing with customs. We have scored a point on the environment, if only because the issue had long been taboo. In social affairs, where the EU has a bad score, the extended dialogue which was currently taking place at the ILO was useful for developing countries and our own troops, EU and US trade union forces, noted Mr Lamy. We have particularly ambitious targets for market access and services, where we believe we have an underused competitive international trade advantage, as demonstrated by the figures, explained Mr Lamy (the sector accounts for 2/3 of EU production but only ¼ of its foreign trade). We have achieved our agricultural objectives, asserted the Commissioner and I will only negotiate on areas the internal reforms enable me to negotiate. In terms of trade disputes, the EU's proposal has already been prepared; based on suggestions from the European Parliament, it aims at greater transparency, revising the compensation mechanism (to avoid being stuck in the logic of sanctions commented French Socialist Harlem Désir) and better coordinatoin between the activities of the WTO and other international organisations.
Technical assistance to developing countries. The Quad powers have to take their commitments to developing countries seriously and one of the aims is to bridge the gap between their theoretical access to the market and the situation in reality. Developing countries find it difficult to use their virtually free access to the European market. The second, more traditional, objective, is to train and familiarise their officials with world rules.
Regionalism/Multilateralism. I am busy considering how regionalism meshes with multilateralism, said Mr Lamy (see EUROPE of 23 February, p.13), stressing that multilateralism was the current priority.