Activities of Florent MARCELLESI related to 2018/2084(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the WTO: the way forward
Amendments (13)
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Recalls that trade liberalisation is not positive, per se, in terms of reducing poverty and inequalities, and that it can even have negative effects on sustainable development if it is not properly regulated; underlines, in this context, that trade should remain a tool to development goals and not an end in itself; underlines the potential of the WTO as an efficient rules- based multilateral negotiating forum which provides a platform for open discussion on global trade-related issues; insists that the EU should continue to promote the democratisation of the WTO;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Stresses the unicity of WTO among international bodies in its ability to punish countries, with the result that countries give precedence to the WTO over UN institutions that cannot penalize them for broken agreements in other fields (such as human rights, labour conditions, health and environmental protection), given the lack of dispute settlement mechanism to enforce those rights; believes that the achievement of the Paris Agreement on climate change and Agenda 2030 implies to reverse the hierarchy of norms so as to make trade an effective tool to achieve SDGs;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Recalls that the lack of integration of human rights norms and standards into global rules governing trade and investment makes it difficult to hold companies accountable; stresses the need to rebalance trade and investment law with human rights law, notably in global supply chains; to this end, calls on the EU to make initiatives in the WTO for the regulation of a specific global supply chain, notably in the garment sector as a first step; in addition, reiterates the importance of the EU being actively involved in the process of the Open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights (OEIGWG) and to uphold the primacy of human rights over trade interests;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. CRecalls that developing countries form the majority of the WTO membership; calls for a trade agenda based on fair trade for the benefit of all, which puts development and social, environmental and human rights at the centre of the process and has a special focus on the needs of low-income developing countries and least-developed countries; stresses the need to reform the WTO, including the Dispute Settlement Mechanism on this line, so as to have a fair and balanced multilateral trading system;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Urges the EU and its Member States to duly reflect the difficulties met by the developing countries in implementing the obligations under the WTO agreements. These problems include i.e.: (a) the prohibition of investment measures and subsidies, making it harder to encourage domestic industry; (b) import liberalization in agriculture, threatening the viability and livelihoods of small farmers whose products face competition from cheaper imported foods; (c) the negative impact of a high-standard intellectual property right (IPR) regime on access to medicine and transfer of technologies; and (d) increasing pressures on developing countries to open up their services sectors, which could undermine the viability of local service providers;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Takes the view that WTO rules and other multilateral trade agreements should enlarge the scope for Special and Differential Treatment to enable a more active use of infant industry promotion tools; in particular, urges the EU and its Member States to secure the principle of “Special and Differential Treatment” (SDT) for all members classified by the World Bank as developing countries;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2c. Highlights that trade agreements can impact negatively on food security in developing countries; regrets that the two instruments proposed by developing countries in the remit of negotiations at the WTO to promote the livelihoods of small farmers, food security and rural development, namely Special Products (SP) and a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) have not been established; calls on the EU to support developing countries' demands to protect their food production and to protect their population from the potentially destructive effects of cheap imports, including in the remit of Economic Partnership Agreements;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. InsistStresses that the WTO should clearly recognise the role that trade can play in contributing to the achievement of the SDGs and the fight against climate change, using the Paris Agreement commitments as a minimum benchmarkobjective of sustainable development should become the overriding principle guiding the work of the WTO, whose rules and operations should be designed accordingly, using the Agenda 2030 and Paris Agreement commitments as a minimum benchmark; to this end, calls for the full recognition of the right to discriminate a product based on the Process and Production Methods (PPM) to combat social and environmental dumping;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Expresses its support for the mechanism of Carbon border tax adjustments as an important tool to guarantee fair competition for companies taking action to reduce their climate impact;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Calls on the EU to engage in rebalancing the global system of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in order to foster the legal transfer of climate-friendly technology in developing countries; to this end, calls for the adoption of a Declaration on “IPR and Climate Change”, comparable to the Doha Declaration of 2001 on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health; calls equally for the revision of WTO industrial subsidy rule, which should include waivers or peace clauses on climate relevant products;
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3c. Stresses that WTO should be supportive of and not run counter to the Convention of Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol; underlines that the provisions of Art.27.3(b) of TRIPS Agreement, which relates to the patentability or non-patentability of plant and animal inventions, and the protection of plant varieties, have raised serious concerns in developing countries for its consequence on biopiracy; supports the proposal of developing countries to amend the TRIPS agreement so that patent applicants are required to disclose the origin of genetic resources and any traditional knowledge used in the inventions, so as to avoid unappropriated patenting;
Amendment 45 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 d (new)
Paragraph 3 d (new)
3d. Deplores that the obligations under the WTO-Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement (SPA) do not acknowledge the right of States to adopt regulation based on the precautionary principle; urges the EU and its Member States to defend full recognition of this principle in WTO obligations;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Is concerned, in the above context, that bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements could lead to the fragmentation of international trade policy and thus undermine the role of the WTO; calls, therefore, for the EU and its Member States to make additional efforts to once again place the WTO at the centre of global trade governance, notably in a context where bilateral and regional free trade agreements (RTAs) contain provisions which are more stringent than those adopted at WTO; recalls that developing countries are the most in need of multilateral system to defend their interests; calls, therefore, for the EU and its Member States to make additional efforts to once again place the WTO at the centre of global trade governance and to refrain from requesting from developing countries WTO + provisions in plurilateral or bilateral treaties, thereby undermining flexibility mechanisms of WTO, set explicitly to protect their interests;