Activities of Saskia BRICMONT related to 2020/2117(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the trade-related aspects and implications of COVID-19
Amendments (38)
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 22 a (new)
Citation 22 a (new)
— having regards to the INTA opinion on the report 'EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030: Bringing nature back into our lives' adopted on 15 April 2021,
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Supports an ambitious and comprehensive Welcomes the mainstreaming of the European Green Ddeal into the cCommunication on the Trade Policy Review (TPR) and calls for a concrete action plan to make this ambition a reality; ; underlines however that the TPR broadly focuses on general principles, already announced initiatives or proposals that are not committal in terms of substance or timetable; regrets that the TPR stops short of recognizing that trade deals can and have contradicted climate objectives by increasing greenhouse gas emissions, intensifying livestock production, accelerating deforestation, biodiversity loss and liberalising trade in polluting goods; asks therefore the Commission to deliver a concrete action plan as a follow-up of the TPR communication to translate these general principles into reality; points out that it will be necessary to activate review clauses in order to rectify elements of the FTA that are inconsistent with the European Green Deal principles and objectives; invites therefore the Commission to update existing chapters of trade and investment agreements by making use of active and timely review clauses to ensure alignment of existing FTAs, and in particular with a view of enhancing enforceability provisions, at the earliest convenience and to present the results and planned adjustments to the European Parliament;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Welcomes the incorporation of the Paris Agreement as an essential element in alleach future trade, investment and partnership agreements; stresses that ratification of the International Labour Organization (, asks the Commission to also provide for such incorporation in ongoing negotiations and in any revision of already existing agreements; underlines that commitments to implement the Paris Agreement require actual enforceability in the framework of trade and investment agreements; requests that the Council in its draft mandate of future agreements and, on the occasion of the review of existing agreements, make the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and CITES essential elements as well; stresses that ratification and a convincing track records in terms of implementation of the ILO) core conventions, Multilateral Environmental Agreements and respect for human rights are a requirements for concluding FTAs; asks for ambitious chapters on gender and on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)SMEs to be included in each trade agreement and for the precautionary principle to be iancludhored in all trade agreementFTAs and integrated in their SPS Chapters;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Underlines that the post-COVID- 19 recovery is a unique opportunity to set the agenda for sustainable growth; calls therefore on the Commission, therefore, to presento set up a transparent and inclusive process for its review of the 15-point aAction pPlan on TSD cChapters without delay; expects the review to urgently address the enforceability of TSD commitments as a matter of which is curgrency, as it is not currently included; recalls, in this regard, the non-paper from the Netherlands and France on trade, social economic effects and sustainable developmenttly lacking; points out in that context that all future and upgraded TSD Chapters should include dispute settlement mechanisms foreseeing sanctionable provisions including withdrawal of trade preferences and other market access concessions made in the rest of the agreements in case of non-compliance with enforceable social and environmental standards; is of the opinion that specific and targeted sustainability requirements should be integrated in Energy and Raw Materials, Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry provisions, including inter alia, transparency and participatory requirements; supports in this regard the Dutch-French non-paper11 ; suggests that,hereby taking as a minimum, recent advances in enforceability should be applied to EU trade policy, namely the ability for the EU to tackle any non- compliance by partners through unilateral sanctions, including the introduction of tariffs or quotas on certain products or the cross-suspension of other parts of an agreement; calls also on the Council and the Commission to include in TSD and agricultural chapters provisions regarding Animal Welfare, Fair Trade and Circular Economy and to ban exports of pesticides forbidden in the EU; calls on the Commission to draw the lessons from the EU-South Korea panel of experts and from the precedent of the Vietnamese roadmap in view of the ratification of ILO Conventions so that trade and sustainable development chapters include a roadmap with concrete and verifiable commitments upon which progress in other chapters will be made; __________________ 11 Non-paper from the Netherlands and France on trade, social economic effects and sustainable development, accessed at ‘the Netherlands at International Organisations (permanentrepresentations.nl)’.
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Calls on the Council and the Commission to review as a matter of urgency the EU negotiating directives as regards all ongoing trade negotiations so as to provide for sanctionable sustainability provisions and in the meantime to consider that the Green European Deal as well as the conclusions of the European Council of December 2020 according to which 'trade policy and trade agreements have to be made consistent with the EU climate ambition, notably those of the European Green Deal' provide a broad mandate for integrating in ongoing bilateral negotiations enforceable and enhanced sustainability provisions; underlines in particular the importance to support and build on the proposals made on the subject matter by New Zealand in the context of recent bilateral talks as this would represent an important benchmark and precedent for future negotiations;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Emphasises that the agreement with the Mercosur cannot be approved given its inconsistency with the European Green Deal and in particular its far reaching impact on climate change, deforestation and biodiversity; urges the Council and the Commission to seek the inclusion of enforceable and legally binding provisions that would address and correct the transversal deficiencies of the agreement as regards overall sustainability; rejects the possible split of the Association Agreement and the Free Trade Agreement as a way to push forward the latter by circumventing democratic processes and disregarding legitimate concerns;
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Asks in that context the EU to review its WTO negotiating directives to table initiatives in the framework of the Trade and Climate Committee as well as in the ongoing environmental goods negotiations aiming at rebalancing the global system of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in order to foster the legal transfer of climate-friendly technology; underlines that such initiatives should include the promotion of a declaration on “IPR and Climate Change” at the WTO, encouraging technology transfer and the use of compulsory licensing of key climate technologies; is of the opinion that the TRIPS Agreement should be amended to allow WTO members to exclude key climate technologies from patent protection as existing flexibilities do not suffice and current TRIPS rules impede the transfer of those technologies to poor and least developed countries;
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Points out that the EU should also take the lead in favouring an interpretation of WTO rules that is more up-to-date with the present context, in particular with regard to policy exceptions on climate and the environment; emphasizes that the reform of the WTO should offer an opportunity to push forward the possibility to distinguish products according to their process and production methods (PPMs) also when these do not alter the final products because it fulfils a “legitimate objective” in the sense of WTO TBT Agreement (Article 2.2), to aim at a modus operandi to calculate the carbon content of goods or services traded internationally and to include a specific framework and disciplines to foster the circular economy;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls for the EU to take athe leading role aton a multilateral level to end harmful subsidies by advocating transparency, and strict regulation and disciplines within trade agreements and at the World Trade Organization (WTO); stresses the importance of drawing up sustainability impact assessments on an ex-ante, intermediate and ex-post basithe WTO; looks forward in that context to the Commission’s initiative on ‘Trade & Climate’ in the WTO as announced in the TPR to include building blocks to develop disciplines on fossil fuel subsidies; is of the opinion that such initiative should put forward proposals for establishing a methodological framework for assessing and quantifying environmentally harmful subsidies that accounts for externalities and building on the 'Do not Significantly Harm Principle'; recalls the EP position on the EU Climate Law to phase-out direct and indirect fossil fuels subsidies in the EU by 2025 at the latest; invites the Commission to agree on a roadmap with each trade partner covered by a trade agreement to support the phasing out of such subsidies; stresses the importance of having sustainability impact assessments on an ex-ante, intermediate and ex-post basis in order to adequately identify, assess and address possible risks as early as possible, and to shape relevant bilateral commitments and monitor their implementation, notably those in relation with the TSD chapters; stresses the need to develop a comprehensive framework with concrete targets to advance the SDGs, the Green Deal and the ILO Decent Work Agenda in trade and investment agreements; emphasiszes thatonly concluding new agreements should only be concluded oncewhen these targets have beenare fulfilled and thatrevising existing agreements should be revisedones accordingly;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Recalls the European Parliament position to end protection of investments in fossil fuels in the context of the modernisation of the Energy Charter Treaty; calls for the Commission and the Council to prepare the scenario for a coordinated exit of the EU and its Member States as the prospects of a meaningful reform of the Treaty are extremely unlikely and as the ECT represents a far reaching obstacle for achieving EU climate objectives;
Amendment 82 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Points out that ongoing challenges such as climate change, the fight against pandemics and the preservation of the environment require appropriate policy space for achieving legitimate public purposes; underlines that in order to provide for a consistent regulatory framework, foreign investors should not be conferred with higher protection standards than domestic investors that may ultimately undermine such policy space;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 c (new)
Paragraph 6 c (new)
6c. Is therefore of the opinion that investment protection chapters in EU FTA should be reformed so as to provide for a public, and transparent adjudication process and limit their substance to the principles of non-discrimination and compensation for-expropriation; points out the need to include in these chapters general exception clauses protecting the implementation of obligations arising from human rights treaties and environmental agreements; further underlines that the EU Taxonomy regulation should be a cornerstone of investor protection so as to ensure that only investments supporting economic activities qualifying as environmentally sustainable according to EU criteria would be eligible to such protection;
Amendment 84 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 d (new)
Paragraph 6 d (new)
6d. Welcomes that the Commission committed to carry out an ex-post evaluation of the impact of the EU’s agreements on key environmental aspects, including the climate; calls for a concrete timeline and stresses that the evaluations should, when necessary, lead to a review of existing agreements in order to address their identified negative impacts;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Emphasises that transparency and dialogue are key to creating support for trade policy; insists that the role and responsibilities of civil society and domestic advisory groups must be clearly defined in the EU’s international agreements and that financial assistance must be duly accompanied by capacity- building measures to enable it to function effectivelyin order for them to function effectively; calls for greater participation and consultation of social partners and civil society in the negotiation and implementation of trade agreements, notably within the remit of domestic advisory groups, whose monitoring role could be extended to all parts of trade agreements, and not limited solely to TSD chapters; calls on the Commission to ensure a follow-up on proposals issued by the Domestic Advisory Groups for improving our international trade policy and to re-establish the Civil Society Dialogue on Implementation of the EU Trade Agreements;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Underlines that the upcoming reform of the GSP system is an opportunity to adapt it to key challenges such as climate change or the post- COVID 19 recovery and to provide for broader consistency with the SDGs and the European Green Deal; underlines that such reform should improve transparency, participation and make monitoring a more structured process, points out that an effective implementation of ILO conventions is key and such objective should be at the core of GSP implementation, is strongly concerned that the GSP is currently exacerbating export dependencies of economies and point to need to change course;
Amendment 101 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Stresses the importance of fair value chains that, respecting human rights, labour rights and environmental standards; recalls that mandatory due diligence throughout the entire supply chain is a necessary instrument to achieve this; stresses that more attention should be paidgiven to the vulnerable position of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), especially in developing countries, where as large companies are more likely to overcome a sudden drop in demand; points out that a key pillar of a for a EU Sustainable Supply Chain Strategy would be to require companies largely exposed to international supply chains to be subject to legally binding reporting requirements in the context of the forthcoming revision of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive and regular 'resilience stress tests' that would map, assess and provide potential responses to their supply chain risks, including externalities as well as social, environmental and political risks;
Amendment 106 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Calls for the EU to ensure trade works also for the economically disadvantaged; in this regard recalls that the specific actions to promote ‘fair and ethical trade schemes’ to which the Commission committed in the ‘Trade for All’ strategy have become even more relevant under the current circumstances given that Fair Trade bottom-up initiatives can ensure that trade benefits the economically disadvantaged actors in the supply chain; calls on the Commission to promote Fair Trade initiatives through EU programs involving young people and the private sector, in external action in general, in the implementation of chapters on trade and sustainable development, through EU delegations as well as by rewarding best practices and facilitating knowledge exchange amongst EU local, regional, national authorities, civil society, schools and universities, including through the extension of the ‘EU cities for fair and ethical trade award’ to schools and universities and the setting up of an annual Fair Trade week hosted in Brussels by the European Commission; demands the European Commission to report on the support of Fair Trade initiatives by the EU and the member states;
Amendment 107 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Notes that global value chains, often involve an uneven distribution of risks, particularly in the garment sector, and disproportionately adversely impacting women; deplores the fact that during the pandemic this uneven distribution has led to European businesses offloading the costs of the lower demand onto the producers in developing countries by, cancelling orders that were already were produced and in some cases even shipped; calls on the Commission to engage with local governments, the private sector and civil society to achieve a fairer distribution of risks across the supply chain; with this respect and considering that 70% of trade is related to global supply chains, calls on the Commission to include in the forthcoming Sustainable Corporate Governance package and in particular in the human rights and environmental due diligence legislation, an obligation to address the impact of their own purchasing practices on downstream actors’ ability to respect and enjoy human rights and environmental and animal welfare standards throughout the due diligence process, and to pay special attention to European SMEs trading that have to use extra-EU vendors as intermediaries with local suppliers;
Amendment 112 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Calls on the Commission to put forward without delay a legislative proposal for a new trade instrument that allows for import bans on products related to forced labour, so as to ensure that forced labour products do not find a place in the EU Single Market; stresses that the conditionality for the lifting of bans should be that companies take measures to improve the situation on the ground, prioritising the remediation of victims; calls on the Commission to present concrete proposals following its pledge of zero tolerance towards child labour before the end of 2021 which is the UN Year for the eradication of child labour, with a special focus on how trade policy can contribute to this goal;
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9b. Calls on the Commission to advance in our relations with partners countries a global circular economy by proposing a Global Circular Economy Alliance, to reach a global agreement on plastics by building on the European Plastics Strategy, to initiate discussions on an international agreement on the management of natural resources, to launch a discussion at the WTO on the constraint posed by the prohibition of local content requirement on the scale-up of circular economy, to build a stronger partnership with Africa on circular economy, to ensure that Free Trade Agreements reflect the enhanced objectives of the circular economy,
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Underlines that the frequency of natural or man-made shocks to global value chains (GVCs) will likely increase in the future and that the existence of GVCs as such increases the likelihood that such shocks are transmitted to other regions, leading to the subsequent increase in macroeconomic volatility; emphasizes that the environmental costs of highly fragmented global GVCs and just-in-time production models are typically not factored into the prices of these products, and thus result in market failures whereby prices do not reflect the full social costs of production;
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Is convinced that the EU is too dependent on a limited number of suppliers for critical goods and services; insists that the EU should overcome these undesirablewanted dependencies via a mix of policiespolicy mix to incentivise companies to stockpile, diversify sourcing strategies and promote nearshoring, which could create new trading opportunities for partners in the Eastern and Southern Nneighbourhoods; requests in that respect the Commission to put forward a comprehensive EU Sustainable Supply Chain Strategy that would inter alia aim at monitoring, measuring and addressing risks of critical supply chains that have been put at the forefront by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, as well as identify value-chains for which supply diversification, reshoring, nearshoring as well as stockpiling would increase the resilience and reduce sustainability related risks of the EU single market;
Amendment 144 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Considers that as unsustainable farming is the primary driver of global biodiversity loss, trade policy should encourage the development of organic farming in partner countries under equivalent standards as EU produced goods, in line with the EU objectives for 2030, and that financial support should be prioritised for products from sustainable supply chains as products protected as Geographic Indications and organic food and aiming at the achievement of SDG targets; calls on the Commission to commission a detailed and independent study on the effects of EU exports and their production methods on biodiversity;
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls onfor the Commission to come up with a digital trade strategy to increase the market access of European businesses and protect EUs citizens’ rights under the GDPR13; calls on the Commission to make publicly available an iron-clad assessment of whether the new EU model clause on data flows will preserve Europeans’ data protection and privacy rights in case of a dispute with a trading partner; stresses that the GDPR, the LED, the e-Privacy rules and other existing and future measures protecting the fundamental rights to privacy and personal data protection must not be undermined by or incorporated in international trade agreements; urges the Commission to follow and not deviate from the EU’s 2018 horizontal position and to take the relevant commitments of third countries under trade law into account when assessing their adequacy, including for onward transfers of data; underlines the acceleration of the digital revolution due to COVID-19 and stressrecognizes the importance of the EU taking the lead in setting standards for a sustainable, digital-driven global economy and keeping international data -flows open; __________________ 13Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General Data Protection Regulation) (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 1).
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Calls forto provide incentives, including by means of tailor-made legal provisions on State Aid, for EU businesses to shorten or adjustlter their supply chains where it is beneficial, to do so, with a view to ensuring thatmake sure external social, environmental and economic costs are fully internalised into the price, in line with EU policies such as the Farm to Fork Strategy, the Circular Economy Action Plan, the Biodiversity Strategy, and sStepping uUp EU aAction to pProtect and rRestore the wWorld’s fForests;
Amendment 162 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Calls on the Commission to publish an updated version of its 2009 communication on fair trade that would promote through trade policy the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and be in line with the European Green Deal and the European Consensus on Development;
Amendment 163 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 b (new)
Paragraph 15 b (new)
Amendment 164 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Underlines that international trade governance has an important role to play in the rapid development of medical treatments and vaccines, the rapidfast scaling e-up of production, the development of resilient global value chains and equitable market access for the whole world; stressesand, in this context, that the COVID- 19 pandemic must be used to provide impetus for more concerted international cooperation and to boost global preparedness for health emergenciunderlines that the current pandemic must give impetus to strengthened international cooperation and global preparedness for health emergencies; urges the Commission to address the root causes identified by IPBES in the reports on biodiversity and pandemics and in particular the far- reaching impact of ever deeper global supply chains on biodiversity depletion and biosphere degradation and their instrumental role as regards the increased frequency and intensity of zoonoses;
Amendment 183 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Is therefore concerned about the recentnew rise inof export restrictions onfor vaccines by the main manufacturing countries such as the US, the UK, China and, India and by the EU and emphasises that this endangers the rapid global scaling e-up of vaccine production capacity; urges the Commission to engage with producing countries to swiftrapidly eliminate export barriers and to replace the export authorisation mechanism with an export and import transparency and notification requirement; insists on havingto receive timely and comprehensive access to such data;
Amendment 184 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Emphasises the key role played by public sector resources allowing pharmaceutical companies to de-risk the whole vaccine value-chain by means of funding and large subsidies for R&D, as well as by large scale advanced purchase agreements; underlines also the fundamental contribution of health care workers, patients, COVID-19 survivors and the general public that has participated to clinical trials and other R&D activities on different therapeutics and vaccines; is therefore of the opinion that innovations underpinning these vaccines should not be privatized by means of exclusive IP rights or be subject to technology transfers barriers; strongly regrets in that respect that that so far, none of the pharmaceutical companies producing such vaccines have shared their technology, know-how and research results with the C-TAP (COVID-19 Technology Access Pool) multilateral initiative, pointing out thereby to the insufficiency of voluntary and industry- controlled approaches;
Amendment 188 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Underlines that the vaccines against COVIDovid-19 and its variants are a global public good and that urgent multilateral efforts should be focused on ramping updly and permanently increasing global production capacities and binding technology transfers, including in low and middle- income countries; strongly welcomes, in this regard, takes note of the ‘Global C19 Vaccine Supply Chain and Manufacturing Summit ’ held on 8 and -9 March 2021 and calls for the establishment of structural platforms to rapidly scale up vaccine production in more countrieto set up structural platforms for rapid vaccine production scale-up in more countries; is of the opinion that the EU should, with that aim, urgently foster at the WTO level as a part of the ‘Health and Trade initiative’ in the twelfth Ministerial Conference, as well as at the next WHO general assembly, multilateral arrangements including a Treaty on Pandemics; underlines that such arrangements should encompass in a one hand, a needs oriented ‘demand- side’ approach providing joint financing and globally coordinated advance purchases, and on the other hand, an integrated ‘supply side’ strategy for scaling-up the whole value-chain, built on open-science, non-exclusive global voluntary licensing and binding mechanisms for technology transfers;
Amendment 194 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19a. Is of the opinion that the EU can and should unilaterally contribute to such endeavour by making sure that future advanced purchase agreements, in particular for next generation vaccines are fully disclosed and integrate binding provisions as regards non-exclusive global licensing, patent pools, know-how, trade secrets, proprietary data and technology transfers; furthermore, points out that as it is likely that new variants of COVID viruses and other zoonosis may become a regular feature over the next years, it is urgent and crucial to structurally rethink the whole business model and public-private partnerships frameworks behind the development production of global public goods such as vaccines and other essential health technologies;
Amendment 200 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Emphasises that international trade policy must play a proactive role in this endeavour by facilitating trade in raw materials, alleviathelping shortages of qualified and experienced personnel, solving supply chain problems and revisiting the global framework for intellectual property rights for future pandemics; insists, in this regard, on a constructive dialogue about a temporary waiver this regard, calls on the EU to support the TRIPS waiver proposal and insists on a constructive dialogue on such proposal, and thereby calls ofn the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of IntellectuEU to request at the TRIPS Council level to start text based negotiations ahead of the MC 12 for addressing without delay global Pproperty Rights (TRIPS)duction constraints and supply shortages, as well as in order to ensure that countries do not face retaliation over COVID-19 related patent infringements during the pandemic;
Amendment 208 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Invites the Commission to set outidentify concrete and specific actions and a roadmap to implement the concept of oOpen sStrategic aAutonomy; stresses that the EU’sreminds that more than half of the EU’s energy needs are met by net imports, mostly from Russia, and that this high energy dependency rate is a challenge for the Open Strategic Autonomy which compels us to accelerate the energy transition; stresses that our market strength, our values and our adherence to cooperation, fairness and rule-based trade should be the basis of suchour openness; strongly recommendsuggests that the EU seeks out partnerships with like-minded partners; stresses, however,however, stresses that where cooperation is not possible, the EU should pursue its interests through autonomous measures to protect itsour values and fight against unfair trading practices; considers that plurilateral trade agreements with a limited number of partners and focussing on strategic issues like the supply of semiconductors and other strategic components or circular economy offer a better and concrete avenue for implementing the concept of open strategic autonomy and would gather support among the civil society;
Amendment 221 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Welcomes the TPRrade Policy Review’s affirmation of multilateralism and the extensive proposals made for the necessary in-depth WTO reform of the WTO; shares; shares the emphasis placed by the Commission’s emphasis on sustainable development in its vision for WTO reform and urges the Commission to bring to beardeploy all efforts to implement a sustainable development agenda; stresses the importance of taking forward the WTO initiative on trade and climate; encourages the Commission to consider the inclusion of expertise on trade and environment in the framework of disputes arising from conflicts between trade commitments and environmental protection exceptions; urges the Commission to push this proposal forward in the context of its WTO climate and trade initiative;
Amendment 229 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Emphasises that reviving the WTO negotiating function will play a key role in any substantial reform of the organisation; highlights,notes in particular, the need to addressat competitive distortions caused by industrial subsidies and state-owned enterpriseState Owned Enterprises in state capitalist systems need to be addressed; asks for the Commission to put forward proposals to identify and differentiate different categories of subsidies by analogy to the ‘red’, ‘amber’ boxes as well as a ‘green box’ that includes those subsidies that support legitimate public goals; calls for the Commission to actively pursue a solution tofor the mismatch between the level of development and the numberlevel of commitments undertaken within the international trading system; is convinced that EU leadership is crucial for any meaningful WTO reform to succeed;
Amendment 244 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Supports the new, forward-looking transatlantic agenda based on common interests and shared values; and urges both the Commission and the US administration to closely cooperate closely in order to secure a level playing field and to agree on ambitious social and environmental standards and build on each other’s experience to enforce these more efficiently enforce them; in this respect, calls on the Commission to put trade and climate and related reforms at the core of transatlantic relations while noting the high level of ambition the new US administration is showing on the topic, also based on new approaches like the ones introduced by USMCA; calls for joint efforts to overcomeget out of the pandemic, speed up the economic recovery and facilitate trade in essential medical goods; reiterates that we should work together to achieve meaningful WTO reform and to find common solutions to common problems;
Amendment 257 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Is aware of the importance of the EU’s multifaceted trade relationship with China; firmly believes that EU-China trade relations require a more balanced and reciprocal approach; stresses that the ratification process of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment can only begin once the EU has the requisite autonomous measures in place, including a ban on products made using forced labour, an upgraded trade defence toolbox and a working sanctions mechanism on human rights; but that scrutiny of CAI by the EP can only start after China has lifted its sanctions against MEPs and EP bodies; demands that the Commission move forward with the Investment Agreement with Taiwan;