Strasbourg, 13/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - If the European Union and the United States act together, they may contribute to a "positive dynamic of change in the world", said EU Council President Josep Piqué, when speaking on Wednesday during a debate at the European Parliament on the future of transatlantic relations. The European Union, "each time more European, each time more European", will spare no effort, he assured, to make the transatlantic Summit on 2 May in Washington (preceded by a EU/US ministerial meeting on 10 April in Madrid) a success. Mr Piqué placed emphasis on cooperation between Europe and the United States in the fight against terrorism since 11 September, and hoped the Union would be able to "maintain and enlarge" its understanding with the United States, and "overcome the crisis/confrontation dynamic to the advantage of the cooperation dynamic". Mr Piqué said he was keen on stressing the magnitude of transatlantic economic and trade relations and mainly noted that around 3 million American jobs depend on European investments in the United States. He recognised, however, that recent decisions concerning steel imports betray a "worrying trend towards unilateralism", which is most "unfortunate" in this crucial phase for the future of the multilateral trading system. Mr Piqué also spoke of the different opinions that exist on the subject of climate change, and pointed out that the EU/US working group set in place at the transatlantic summit in Gothenburg will be meeting next week.
Pascal Lamy, European Trade Commissioner, began by attacking the "latest eruption of American steel protectionism", a "chronic illness" that is a feature of a policy that has "reinvented intermittent free trade: one day it works, the next it doesn't, and, on 6 March, it didn't". The American measures will make the rest of the world bear the burden of readjustment in the American steel industry, "with most of it falling on us, as we shall probably be the main victim", said Mr Lamy. He predicted the impact of "deflection towards the European markets of a large part of the steel products that will no longer have access to the American market". Unlike the United States, he said, we shall remain "strictly within the context of our international commitments" in our retaliation, he specified. He went on to recall that the Commission will: - call on the WTO to note the unlawful nature of American measures ("we are not alone, as these measures will "disrupt the steel market throughout the world"); - call for countervailing measures and, depending on the reaction to this, verify whether the abolition of Union customs concessions is "desirable or foreseeable"; - take measures against the risk of deflected steel export flows. Mr Lamy recalled that a preliminary surveillance system of imports has been in place for several weeks, in "total conformity with WTO rules", and that the necessary measures will take effect "at the precise moment when American measures take effect". The Commissioner said they wish to keep to the rules as they believe that "world trade is not the Far West". He repeated that American measures are "unfair and unfounded", and bad for European industry and world trade, but also for the American economy. Mr Lamy recalled other Euro-American disputes in passing: the important dispute over Foreign Sales Corporations (FSC) and those still not settled concerning hormone-treated beef and nectarines.
Mr Lamy also recalled the "more positive agenda to be managed" with the United States, at both multilateral and bilateral levels, and, concerning the bilateral level, he pointed out that "we are working on a hypothesis" as regards questions such as a transatlantic agreement on air transport and agreements on intellectual property, accounting and insurance. At the summit on 2 May, he pointed out, discussions will cover the fight against drugs, judicial cooperation and ("why not?") the prospects of the Johannesburg Summit.
The Summit on 2 May must raise questions on the whole context of EU/US relations and, in particular, on "what the EU can do and what the United States can do", said British Conservative James Elles during the debate. He fears "unravelling of the security side". Let us update the transatlantic declaration, exclaimed the president of the Socialist Group, Enrique Baron, who warned Europe against any "servility" towards Washington. British Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg described as "economic illiterate philosophy" the theses of the US Under-Secretary for Trade, Grant Aldonas, justifying protectionism by macro-economic motivations (see EUROPE of 11/12 March, p.17). Dutch Green member Joost Ladendijk, as well as German PDS member André Brie, were particularly critical of the increase in American military spending. A resolution on steel will be put to the vote on Thursday.