Brussels, 11/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - On the sidelines of the EU/United States summit on 10 June, Peter Mandelson, who piloted EU trade talks, and EU Ambassador with the WTO Eckart Guth sent out a strong message of warning against rising levels of protectionism in America.
The day before the Brdo summit (EUROPE 9679), where European and US leaders nonetheless reiterated their commitment in favour of a successful conclusion to the Doha Round, and undertook to combat any form of protectionism and to promote the opening of investment, Mr Mandelson invited candidates to the White House not to promote the rising tide of protectionism in the United States. “Who would have thought, 10 years ago, that you would hear serious US presidential candidates putting NAFTA (the North America Free Trade Agreement) in question? Or calling into question the desirability of concluding a world trade round?” (Ed.: at the WTO), the European Trade Commissioner said during the 2008 session of the Churchill lecture, on 9 June in New York. “We need to be straight with Americans and Europeans about just how badly disengagement from the global economy would hurt their political and economic interests. And that means being honest about the extent to which protectionism is a dead end”, he added. During the American electoral campaign, Democrat Barack Obama spoke of renegotiating NAFTA, which links the United States to Canada and to Mexico, and promise not to sign any trade agreement which does not include strong provisions on social protection and the environment. Republican John McCain, for his part, is against renegotiation of NAFTA, supports bilateral free trade agreements with Columbia, South Korea and Panama, and envisages a new free trade agreement with the EU. The debate on the future guidelines of the American trade policy is in full swing while global trading powers seek to conclude the Doha Round launched in 2001 by the end of the year. “We have a potential deal on the table that could be worth more in new trade than any previous multilateral trade round. Yet the final trade-offs that would put a balanced deal within reach are proving elusive. (. ) It would be gross irresponsibility if we fail where every previous trade round has succeeded”, Mr Mandelson warned. Rejecting allegations that globalisation is a threat, the Commissioner also invited world leaders to go for adjustment and innovation rather than falling back on protectionism. “As one government after another has imposed new export tariffs in response to rising global food prices, they have pushed up prices for everyone else”, he said, deploring the fact that there are too few leaders resisting this trend. Mr Mandelson nonetheless admitted that the countries with strong social safety nets are the best equipped to adjust to globalisation and keep their economies open.
The day after the Brdo summit, the EU ambassador at the WTO seized the opportunity of the publication of the 9th WTO Trade Policy Review (TPR) of the United States to highlight European concerns regarding rising protectionism in the United States. During the TPR meeting, in Geneva on 9 June, Eckart Guth highlighted the signs of a re-emergence of protectionism in a number of policy areas in the United States and submitted to Washington over 90 detailed technical questions about aspects of its trade policy. Mr Guth above all noted the growing number of restrictive import requirements for security purposes that are imposing considerable burdens on EU exporters. The European ambassador above all expressed doubts about the compliance of these measures with WTO rules and their real intention, taking as an example the new federal legislation on 100% scanning of containers arriving in American ports which, in his view, runs counter to a modern customs approach based on risk-based controls without providing any guarantees as regards improved security. Instead, he said, it will increase transaction costs, cause significant delays at ports and introduce huge burdens on exporters and customs administrations worldwide. Mr Guth also deplored the fact that the United States had not opted for a more reform-oriented agricultural policy in the new 2008 US Farm Bill, saying that the new Bill maintains the same trade-distorting character as its predecessors. The European ambassador also invited Washington to ensure prompt compliance with all WTO rulings and recommendations citing the “Zeroing” case as an example. Finally, Mr Guth expressed European concern about the use of fisheries subsidies, intellectual property rights enforcement, sanitary measures for food products, regional trade agreement (RTA) policy and constraints on investment in services sectors, such as financial services and telecommunications. (E.H./transl.jl)