Activities of Saskia BRICMONT related to 2019/2197(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the implementation of the common commercial policy – annual report 2018
Amendments (52)
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
A a. whereas Article 207 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU and Article 21 of the Treaty on European Union stipulate that the common commercial policy shall be conducted in the context of the principles and objectives of the Union's external action, including the promotion of Human Rights, democracy, the rule of law and sustainable development;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas recent Eurobarometer figures show that around 60 % of the EU citizens believe that the EU’s trade policy brings benefits for them; whereas part of the public opinion is strongly vocal againsis highly informed about trade policy and trade agreements and at various occasions, such as the TTIP and the CETA negotiation, has voiced substantive and well argued criticism on the present parameters of EU trade policy making; whereas the Commission and the Member States must continue to develop a proper communication strategy on trade policy and trade agreements, which aims to tackle fake news on trade and to transmit as much information as possible, while targeting specific stakeholders and raising economic operators’ awareness about trade agreements;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
B a. Whereas the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis has exposed the lack of resilience of global value chains of some key products, including medical equipments and devices, to unilateral measures taken by governments and to the so-called process optimization methods that do not allow for disruption;
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
B b. Whereas the European Commission adopted the European Green Deal in December 2019 which foresees that “All EU actions and policies will have to contribute to the European Green Deal objectives";
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B c (new)
Recital B c (new)
B c. Whereas science-based reports point to growing risks of worldwide outbreaks of pandemics and of climate change-related phenomena impacting international relations and conclude that our economic models have to be deeply reformed, notably in accordance with the Paris climate Agreement;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Insists that EU trade strategy must continue to promote EU interests and values when contending with new challenges worldwide in order to keep and increase the competitiveness of its industry; considers, therefore, that an ambitious multilateral and plurilateral agenda, the conclusion of win-win trade agreements and their effective implementation and the elimination of unjustified trade barriers constitute the best way to make the EU more competitive in a globalised world while pushing forward the European Green Deal agenda, including in its external dimension;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Stresses that choices in our relationship with the two other trade superpowers, China and the USA, which represent approximately 30 % of our trade exchanges, are key when it comes to driving EU trade policy; however, insists that the EU should reinforce its relationships with other parts of the world and must work at a multipolar world order; underlines the need to avoid the overdependence of the EU economy from supply chains of few major trading partners;
Amendment 78 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Stresses that it is a critical moment for multilateralism and for the global trading system after the adoption of SDGs, the Paris Climate Agreement, the outbreak of covid19 and growing tensions around the world among populations because of their perceptions that trade fuels inequality and precariousness;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. WelcomesTakes note of the progress made during ongoing sectoral negotiations, namely on domestic regulation for services, e-commerce and investment facilitation; underlines that these sectoral negotiations are Joint Communication based plurilateral undertakings which should be conducted in view of involving the entire WTO membership and finding cross-cutting consensus of all participants;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Stresses that despite recent tensions and unilateral provocations in transatlantic relations, the EU should continue to work with the USA as a partner, with whom it has to find solutions to trade issues of common interest and while ensuring that European standards are respected;
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Welcomes the conclusion of the negotiations for an EU-China Geographical Agreements of 6 November 2019 and calls for its swift ratifications a positive step towards improving protection of EU GI products in China, calls for its swift ratification and for an updated legislation and stronger enforcement; insists that this EU-China Agreement must not be infringed upon by the US- China Phase-1 trade deal;;
Amendment 138 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Encourages the Commission to negotiate an ambitious investment agreement with China, which removes all barriers to EU investmentsmarket openness in China, and looks forward to athe conclusion of the negotiations by the end of 2020 as agreed in the EU-China Summit in 2019as soon as possible; firmly believes, however, that substance of the agreement should be prioritised over the speed of its conclusion;
Amendment 143 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14 a. Stresses the need to put in place a strong International Procurement Instrument in order to increase EU leverage to negotiate reciprocity and market opening;
Amendment 147 #
14 b. Insists that Uyghur forced labour must be excluded from the supply chains of products imported into the common market;
Amendment 150 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Acknowledges the promising outcome presented in the Commission’s report regarding the implementation of free trade agreements (FTAs), in particular South Korea, Central and Latin America, Canada, Eastern partners, and African Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) countries; stresses that EU trade agreements have a clear track record of, in mostany cases, reachinged their primary objective of creating significantadditional opportunities for EU exporters on third- country trade markets; requests thorough ex post sustainability impact assessments to be carried out by the Commission, discussed by the related domestic advisory board and national and European Parliaments, highlighting divergences with ex ante impact assessments and accompanied by corrective measures in case initial expectations and goals related to Article 21 of TEU are not met either by the EU or by the partner(s);
Amendment 157 #
15 a. Deplores the lack of gender data in the thorough assessment implementation of the FTAs; expects the next report to contain comprehensive data as to the impacts of FTAs in accordance with the commitment taken by Commissioner Hogan; Flags in that respect the gender- based assessment carried out by Canada as a best practice worth to be implemented;
Amendment 159 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Recalls the positive developments of the EU-Canada trade agreement (CETA); notes that during its first full calendar year of implementation, bilateral trade in goods, including agri-food products, grew by 10.3 %, compared to the average of the previous three years; recalls that the EU’s trade surplus with Canada rose by 60 % and created additional opportunities for our exporters; deplores that more recent data related to export by EU SMEs and the overall sustainability of the Agreement were not provided to the European Parliament which requested them on several occasions; is concerned about the possible lowering of EU standards by way of CETA committees working outside the supervisory power of European and national Parliaments; regrets the lack of engagement of the Commission on the suggestion of the Canadian side regarding a strengthened implementation and follow-up of the TSD chapter;
Amendment 166 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Reiterates its concern over the poor use of preference utilisation in the EU’s FTAs which denotes the limits of the strategy of trade bilateralism for all but the biggest economic operators; notes, in particular, a large divergence in utilisation by the EU’s exporters in different agreements and little divergence in utilisation between the EU’s importers; calls on the Commission to further analyse preference utilisation; highlights the importance of flexible, streamlined, and easy rules of origin in this regard;
Amendment 175 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Amendment 176 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 b (new)
Paragraph 17 b (new)
17 b. Recalls the need for an effective action plan to implement the goal of zero tolerance of child labour in FTA's by building a strong partnership with NGO's and national authorities in order to develop strong social and economic alternatives for families and workers, in coherence with actions taken under the EU development policy;
Amendment 179 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Calls on the European Union to engage more with African countries in order to create an effective and solid partnership that would promote effective development and growth in the African continent and help them to keep track with the 2063 African Development Strategy; stresses that the figures of the recent report of 10 February 2020 on the General Scheme of Preferences (GSP) covering the period 2018-2019 show an increase of the utilisation rate of the preferences by the countries benefitting from the scheme; calls on the Commission to increase its technical and economic aid for developing trade between the EU and African countries as well as among the African countries themselves;
Amendment 185 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19 a. Underlines that the liberalisation agenda will trigger a decrease of import tariffs which currently represent up to 25 % of national budget; calls upon the Commission to examine ways with concerned countries to identify alternative sources of income to preserve their capacity to finance public services, social protection and invest in the achievement of SDGs;
Amendment 192 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. WelcomesTakes note of the entry into force of the EU-Japan FTA of 1 February 2019 and notes that, according to the first elements given after one year of implementation6 , EU exports to Japan went up by 6.6 % compared to the same period the year before; _________________ 6 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorn er/detail/en/ip_20_161
Amendment 198 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. WelcomesTakes note of the entry into force of the EU-Singapore trade agreement of 21 November 2019; welcomes and its consent on the EU- Vietnam agreement and calls for its quick thorough implementation; views these agreements as a s, especially of the commitments relatepd towards concluding an FTA with the entire Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region labour and human rights issues and urges the Commission to ensure their concrete enforcement in liaison with the EEAS;
Amendment 204 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Calls for an ambitious agenda to be pursuednd Green- Deal compliant agenda to be pursued in ongoing FTA negotiations when it comes to negotiating FTAs, in particular with Australia and New Zealand, Tunisia. Morocco and Indonesia; reiterates its call for opening investment negotiations with Taiwan;
Amendment 213 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Encourages the Commission to seize the momentum caused by the UK’s withdrawal to streamline our EU-policies and protect the social rights of citizens, cut red tape and enhance competitiveness for EU companies and small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs); stresses that the FTA should aim to allow for the closest possible market access and trade facilitation in order to minimise trade disruptions while making no compromise on environmental and social standards as well as deterring tax competition;
Amendment 223 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Welcomes the conclusions of the trade negotiations with Mexico and the MERCOSUR countries, which have both the potential to deepen our strategic partnership with Latin America and to create additional opportunities in our trade relations with those countries; notes that such opportunities would also give EU companies access to an increasingly growing marketStrongly disagrees with the absence of up to date information of the European Parliament concerning the final step of the EU-Mexico Agreement and that Human rights issues were discarded as well as the broader consistency with new policies and objectives pursued by the Commission such as the European Green Deal, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the Biodiversity Strategy ;
Amendment 231 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Welcomes the Commission’s initiative for a European Green Deal and underlines that it should be comprised of a strategy that is ecologically, economically and socially balancedactively supported by a EU trade strategy which puts the commitments under the Paris Agreement at the core of trade negotiations with third countries; calls for a revision of all existing EU trade agreements under the perspective of the imperatives of the Paris Agreement;
Amendment 235 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
Paragraph 28
28. BelieveDoubts that the current system already demonstrates some efficiency, as seen in the framework of the EU-Korea FTA in which the EU has requested - only eight years after the conclusion of the Agreement - the establishment of a panel following South Korea’s failure to ratify International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions on workers’ rights, notably on freedom of association and collective bargaining; learning from this experience, calls on the Commission to be more attentive to the respect of social and environmental standards and to trigger action with much shorter timelines;
Amendment 241 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Recalls that the early efforts of the Commission and Parliament in the trade negotiations with Mexico and Vietnam paid off with the ratification by both countries respectively in November 2018 and July 2019 of the ILO Convention 98 on the right to organise and collective bargaining; Calls upon the Commission to monitor the progress with respect to the other ILO Conventions, including on the prohibition of child labour and to set up without delay the inter-parliamentary committee put in place under the EVFTA;
Amendment 244 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Believes that enforceable TSD chapters in trade agreements shouldalong with a legislative framework for mandatory due diligence and a “green deal diplomacy” are important parts in driveing the external dimension of the European Green Deal, and any new adjustment mechanism should be compatible with WTO rules as well as EU FTAs; stresses that EU companies that are users of intermediate goods should not be put at a competitive disadvantagethat needed adjustments of the EU trade policy should be compatible with multilateral trade rules made fit to respond to imperatives of global climate change and biodiversity goals;
Amendment 256 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 a (new)
Paragraph 31 a (new)
31 a. Sets as preconditions for the opening of negotiations that potential countries respect the rule of Law, democratic principles as established in the key UN documents and in Article 21 of the Treaty and implement in good faith the Paris Climate Agreement;
Amendment 257 #
31 b. Bearing in mind the agreement on taxonomy which set out the criteria that allow investment to be qualified as “sustainable”, considers that for the consistency of internal and external actions of the EU, only sustainable investment should be protected in IPAs;
Amendment 258 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 c (new)
Paragraph 31 c (new)
31 c. Calls for the external dimension of circular economy initiatives[1] to be scaled up in our relations with third countries through regulatory cooperation and dialogue; [1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52 020DC0098&from=EN ? ;
Amendment 259 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 d (new)
Paragraph 31 d (new)
31 d. Encourages the EU and its Member States to pursue the adoption of a coherent legislative framework establishing mandatory due diligence requirements for companies[1]and welcomes supportive statements in this regard by Trade Commissioner Hogan; invites the Commission to make sure that FTAs and IPAs will support the new framework by putting in place grievance mechanisms and encouraging national and local authorities to support them; [1] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/doc ument/B-8-2018-0443_EN.pdf
Amendment 260 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 e (new)
Paragraph 31 e (new)
31 e. Considers that the trade dimension of the COP15 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity should be fully taken into account; recalls its resolution of 16January2020[1]calling on the Commission and Member States to actively engage, particularly through their external action instruments, such as the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument(NDICI), with third countries to promote and set targets for biodiversity protection, conservation and restoration measures and governance, in particular in all multilateral and trade agreements, as well as measures against non- compliance; as a consequence, calls on the Commission to include enforceable Trade and Sustainable Development Chapters in all future trade agreements; [1] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/doc ument/TA-9-2020-0015_EN.pdf
Amendment 261 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 9 a (new)
Subheading 9 a (new)
Gender mainstreaming
Amendment 262 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 f (new)
Paragraph 31 f (new)
31 f. Recalls that under Article 10 of the TFEU and under SDG 5, the Commission and Member States have the obligation to combat gender-based discrimination and seek to empower all women and girls; considers that this crosscutting objective should apply to trade policy as well; recalls the Buenos Aires Declaration signed in2017; underlines the importance of the toolkit developed by the UNCTAD to perform gender-aware ex ante evaluations of trade policies ; requests that impact assessments consider consequences of the EU trade policy on the unremunerated domestic activities of women;
Amendment 263 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 g (new)
Paragraph 31 g (new)
31 g. Takes note that the 26 sustainability impact assessments completed as of June 2017 did not include any specific statistics on Trade and Gender and that the 2018 implementation report does not provide any data either;
Amendment 264 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 h (new)
Paragraph 31 h (new)
31 h. Demands that beside the usual fundamental ILO conventions, the EU should urge its economic partners to ratify and implement Conventions 189 on domestic workers, 156 on workers with family responsibilities and 190 on violence and harassment;
Amendment 265 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 i (new)
Paragraph 31 i (new)
31 i. Calls on the Commission to make sure that the composition of DAGs be gender-balanced, a Trade and Gender committee be established to point at shortcomings and as is the case in the Canada-Israel FTA, the dispute settlement mechanism applies to gender issues;
Amendment 266 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
32. Recalls that the efforts to keep rules-based trade must play a crucial role in our trade strategy and in this context recalls the adoption on the modernisation of trade defence instruments in 2018, and the new foreign investment screening mechanism; stresses that the new foreign investment screening mechanism should never be a tool for protectionismot be seen as a tool for protectionism, but as a mean to preserve the EUs strategic autonomy in key fields of technology; is looking forward to a report on the implementation of the TDI to assess how the social and environmental standards are taken into account;
Amendment 276 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 a (new)
Paragraph 32 a (new)
32 a. Emphasizes the necessity of having in place adequate investment screening mechanisms in all member states to protect against risks regarding security and public order;encourages member states that do not yet have screening mechanisms to put inplace temporary solutions and invites the Commission to actively support such efforts;
Amendment 280 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
33. Welcomes the ongoing plurilateral negotiations over key areas of trade in services, namely onTakes note of the ongoing Joint Initiative negotiations of WTO members regarding e-commerce, domestic regulation for services, on and investment facilitation; notes that having a commercial presence in a third country is the dominant moddemands more detailed information by the Commission to Parliament and the public on the state of supplay for trading services and for e- commerceof these negotiations;
Amendment 283 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35
Paragraph 35
35. SupportsTakes note of the WTO Joint Statement initiatives on Electronic Commerce for global rules on electronic commerce; calls for openness to a meaningful outcome to facilitate the flow of data across borders and address unjustified barriers to trade by electronic means, in full conformity with EU privacy and dthe EUs General Data pProtection law, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)9 , and to make use of the flexibility given by the negotiating directives; Regulation(GDPR)9 ; considering that the digital economy is highly concentrated in the United States and China[1], calls upon the Commission to strengthen the collaboration between the EU and African and Latin American countries The United States and China account [1] for 75% of all patents related to blockchain technologies, 50% of global spending on the Internet of Things (IoT), more than 75% of the cloud computing market and as much as 90% per cent of the market capitalization value of the world’s 70 largest digital platform companies (UNCTAD Digital Economy Report, 2019) _________________ 9 OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 1.
Amendment 289 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36
Paragraph 36
36. Notes that SMEs account for approximately 30 % of the EU goods exports and yet, only 5 % of SMEs are active on the international front meaning that a large majority of them depend on the vibrancy of the internal market and face increased competition from international companies due to the liberalisation agenda; supports the idea that a specific chapter on SMEs should be part of all proposed FTAs, as done in the EU-Japan agreement, and that they should be included when revising existing FTAs; notes that trade barriers and bureaucracy are especially problematic for SMEs that cannot afford the extra work to overcome them;
Amendment 297 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 38
Paragraph 38
Amendment 300 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 38 a (new)
Paragraph 38 a (new)
38 a. Highlights that climate change and the continued biodiversity loss will trigger more pandemics to spread in the future because of the modification of ecosystems, more resistant viruses and old viruses caught in permafrost and frozen areas being released; calls on the Commission to investigate how trade policy contributes to such phenomena and to present proposals to address this problem, notably by following up on the study on “Methodologies and Indicators to Assess the Impact of Trade Liberalisation on Biodiversity” produced at the request of the Commission itself; calls upon the Commission to use regulatory cooperation and dialogues foreseen in FTAs to promote EU stringent SPS standards and animal welfare in order to minimize the risks of future epidemics and pandemics; In the meantime, requests that trade in such animals and from unsafe countries be prohibited in the EU;
Amendment 302 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 38 b (new)
Paragraph 38 b (new)
38 b. Calls on WTO members to reinstate either formally or informally the concept of a non-actionable or “green light” subsidy found in Article 8 of the WTO’s Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures for all subsidies provided to companies producing medical equipment, supplies, disinfectants, and other goods used in combating pandemics and for all research conducted to discover vaccines against or medicine to treat the viruses
Amendment 303 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 38 c (new)
Paragraph 38 c (new)
38 c. Calls on G-20 countries to commit to making newly discovered vaccines, effective medicines and patented medical devices available at reasonable costs throughout the world, whether through compulsory licenses or other alternatives to monopoly pricing under traditional intellectual property protections;
Amendment 304 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 38 d (new)
Paragraph 38 d (new)
38 d. Points that pandemics and climate change threaten to disrupt global value chains and are a major source of vulnerability beyond the concerned companies for national and global economies; considering that these phenomena will increase in magnitude, calls upon the Commission to launch a white book exploring the feasibility and ways to relocate economic activities in the EU without resisting the temptation of protectionism and in conformity with the European Green Deal;
Amendment 305 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 38 e (new)
Paragraph 38 e (new)
38 e. Underlines the peculiar weaknesses of developing countries not in capacity to cope with such pandemics because of the low level of their public health systems, because they are deprived of producers of medical devices and equipment and because of the numerous (non-)tariff trade barriers;