Significant conclusions of EU Council meeting. As readers of this newsletter will have remarked, there has been a batch of encouraging news about the European Union's trade relations recently. The EU, the world's leading trading power, is starting to play the inspiring role it deserves. European institutions are no longer restricting themselves to recommending the expansion of trade but are also outlining the conditions under which trade should be fostered. The objective has also changed. Rather than simply boosting statistics, it is now a matter of calling for fair trade in proper conditions that respect the spirit of trade deals and international standards.
I would first like to highlight the 'conclusions' adopted by the Council earlier this week, on Monday 13 November, outlined in our newsletter (issue 9306). Backing the guidelines set out by the European Commission in its October document on a competitive Europe in a globalised economy (see newsletter 9278), the Council did not simply reaffirm the EU's pledge to boost free trade, but also clearly set out objectives and conditions. It is necessary to take account of the global context of how EU companies operate outside the EU, stressing unfair, opaque regulatory obstacles encountered outside the EU, and the conditions for safe, effective, non-discriminatory access for EU companies to raw materials, including energy. The EU intends to play a leading role in drawing up high quality global rules and regulations in order to ensure its trading partners' legislation is more compatible with EU regulations. Protecting intellectual property rights and tackling counterfeiting will be a priority.
The WTO and beyond. The EU wants the World Trade Organisation to remain the central plank of the international trading system and recommends the relaunch of the Doha Round, but at the same time, 'complementary mechanisms' are needed and will have to be found for respect of intellectual property, public procurement, cooperation on regulatory issues, competition (including public aid) and investment.
Limits and criteria. The Council shares the European Commission's ideas about a new generation of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), which need to form part of a coherent framework involving non-tariff obstacles, the liberalisation of services and investment and regulatory issues. In these conditions, the Council agrees to consider negotiating with ASEAN, India and South Korea, and also with Russia and Ukraine when they join the WTO. In parallel, the EU will ensure it continues to develop transatlantic trade relations, but without aiming at a free trade agreement with the United States. Mercosur is not mentioned either in connection with potential new FTAs. Poor countries have to continue to have privileged access to the EU market and their development needs to be supported. The conditions listed do not directly concern poor countries (apart from the indication of cooperation to improve social and environmental standards, but this is a general statement applying to all).
The Commission has been invited to rapidly submit to the Council proposals concerning the various new initiatives, namely the new generation FTAs (which should be carefully selected and listed in order of importance), the EU's strategy for China, proposals on respect for intellectual property rights and public procurement, and a Green Paper on trade defence instruments.
I would like to repeat what I feel is a very significant sentence quoted in the above-mentioned summary by Emmanuel Hagry: 'positive effects of trade openness to be of benefit to all citizens, not just to specific interest groups'. In my view, this refers to the interests of various multinationals and big international trading groups, which I feel have had too much influence to date, with the support of various non-governmental organisations, in the orientation of EU trade policy. Their interests are just as legitimate as others, but they must not predominate.
Tomorrow, I will discuss what I see as other positive views and suggestions concerning the vast domain of EU's trade relations with third countries.
(F.R.)