18 Amendments of Michèle RIVASI related to 2020/2117(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph -1 (new)
Paragraph -1 (new)
-1. whereas the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the vulnerability of the global supply chain, notably in food and health, and the need to build regional value chains and boost regional integration;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph -1 a (new)
Paragraph -1 a (new)
-1a. Welcomes the commitment made by the Commission in its Communication “Trade Policy Review - An Open, Sustainable and Assertive Trade Policy “ of 18 February 2021 to make its trade policy coherent with its overarching objective of green transformation of the economy, towards a climate neutral, environmentally sustainable, resource efficient and resilient economy by 2050;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that COVID-19 has caused an unprecedented health, economic, social and humanitarian crisis on a global scale, with asymmetric effects for least developed countries (LDCs) whose high vulnerability is linked to poor economic diversification and high dependency on export of raw materials; calls for the EU to tailor its commitments and approach to developing countries and LDCs accordingly;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. CRecalls that one of the main challenges for developing countries is to climb up the global value chain through economic diversification, which necessitates fair and pro-development global trade rules; calls on the Commission to mount an assertive and coordinated international trade policy response geared towards a multilateral, resilient and sustainable recovery in developing countries; calls on the Commission to deepen EU-Africa trade relations through economic p, with a view to contributing to the fulfilment of the SDGs and their regional integration process; in this context, highlights limited progress regarding the economic diversification of developing countries covered by Economic Partnership aAgreements, while making the most of the EU’s Aid for Trade Strateg; urges once more the EU and its Member States to acknowledge the difficulties encountered by developing countries related to EPAs, especially in terms of regional integration, industrialisation and economic diversification and to revise EPAs accordingly;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Encourages the EU and the Member States to help developing countries and regions to keep their borders open and to set up ‘green corridor mechanisms’ to allow the unhindered flow of essential goods, agri-food products and humanitarian aid across borders, while taking, at the same time, decisive action to mitigate and adapt to climate change, protect the environment and strong social and labour policies;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. IStresses that the Covid-19 pandemic has shown the vulnerability of the global value chain systems, in particular the need to diversify production and supply chains; invites the Commission to adapt its trade policy in order to help developing countries to boost the resilience and diversification of their value chains at a global, regional and local level, including reshoring and nearshoring; to this effect, calls on the EU and its Member States not to systematically oppose local content clauses in its partner’s climate policies, as it may be useful in promoting the production and consumption of locally produced goods; recalls equally that trade rules should encourage the sustainable use of resources; to this end, calls on the EU to refrain from adopting a trade policy that prohibits, as a general rule, ACP countries from levying export taxes on raw material insofar as it is WTO- compatible, notably for industrial development and environmental protection purposes;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Welcomes the commitment shown by the EU and its Member States in tackling the wider impact of COVID-19, in particular through the Coronavirus Global Response and COVAX initiatives;Stresses that a more equitable distribution of vaccines around the globe is essential to combat effectively the spread of the covid-19 and its mutation; recalls equally that COVID-19 medical tools should be affordable, safe, effective, easily administered and universally available for everyone and everywhere; welcomes, as a first step, the commitment shown by the EU and its Member States in tackling the wider impact of COVID-19, in particular through the Coronavirus Global Response and COVAX initiatives; but recalls that vaccines should be declared a global public good; accordingly, urges the Commission and the Member States not to block the TRIPS waiver at the WTO and to support global open access to Covid-19 vaccines to scale up global production, notably through technology transfer; to this end, urges the EU to support developing countries, in particular LDCs, in the effective implementation of flexibilities for the protection of public health provided for in TRIPs agreements, notably compulsory licencing and parallel import; in the meantime, calls on the Commission to coordinate with the World Health Organization and the African Union in order to scale up vaccine production for developing countries;
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Urges the Commission to identify the appropriate measures to ensure that this pandemic does not precipitate a food crisis in the developing world; supports actions to facilitate tradein this context, recalls the commitment made by the Commission in its Farm to Fork Strategy to support the global transition to sustainable agri-food system, notably by striving to obtain ambitious commitments from third countries in key areas such as animal welfare, the use of pesticides and the fight against antimicrobial resistance; recalls equally its pledge to support small- scale farmers, short-supply chains, agro- ecology and conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity; notes, however, that EU trade agreements can have a negative impact on food security in developing countries; calls for the EU to support developing countries’ demands to protect their food production and to safeguard their population from the potentially destructive effects of cheap imports, notably within the remit of revised economic partnership agreements (EPAs); and to supports actions with a view to promoting food safety and sanitary and phytosanitary measures in response to COVID-19, in line with its “Green Deal” commitments, notably its “Farm to Fork Strategy”; stresses that EU FTAs should include specific references to Parties’ rights to invoke the precautionary principle, ass enshrined in the TFEU as well as the Convention on Biological Diversity, with regard to SPS measures;
Amendment 61 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Recalls that seed diversity is vital in building the resilience of farming to climate change; recalls that farm-saved seeds are estimated to account for over 80% of farmers’ total seed requirements in some African countries; calls for the EU to support intellectual property rights regimes that enhance the development of locally adapted seed varieties and farmer- saved seeds, in line with the provisions of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), which safeguards the rights of farmers to maintain genetic resources for purposes of food security and climate change adaptation;
Amendment 63 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Recalls that the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services will undermine progress in approximately 80 % of the assessed targets for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); regrets that dispute settlement systems covering biodiversity and trade provisions in Multilateral Environment Agreements are not binding, unlike the WTO enforcement system, which de facto embodies the supremacy of commercial law over biodiversity; in particular, recalls that current WTO rules limit the possibility of EU Member States of raising tariffs on products that have a negative impact on biodiversity; against this backdrop, welcomes the commitment of the Commission to prioritise effective implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity in trade and investment agreements; and calls on the Commission to advocate reform of the WTO along this line;
Amendment 67 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Commission to collaborate with developing partner countries in order to facilitate digital infrastructure, establish policy strategies and harmonise regulatory frameworks forto seek robust digital standards and regulatory approaches, in full compliance with the EU’s data protection framework, including on provisions on e- commerce., with the aim to ensure a high level of consumer protection;
Amendment 72 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Welcomes the commitment of the Commission to reinforce the sustainability dimension of existing and future trade agreements; accordingly, calls for a fully- fledged sustainability ex-ante and ex-post impact assessment of EU FTAs;
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Welcomes the Commission’s commitment to make compliance with the Paris Agreement an “essential clause” of the EU trade agreements; stresses that, in order to be enforceable, the environmental objectives of the EU’s free trade agreements (FTAs) must be clear, quantifiable, verifiable, based on robust, transparent and inclusive ex-ante sustainable impact assessments and include sanctions for non-compliance;
Amendment 76 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 c (new)
Paragraph 7 c (new)
7c. Welcomes the Commission's commitment to engage the EU to pursue a strong environmental agenda at the WTO, notably by taking initiatives that promote climate and sustainability considerations in the remit of the WTO; recalls that the objective 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;
Amendment 79 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 d (new)
Paragraph 7 d (new)
7d. Believes that parties to the Paris Agreement should have policy space to implement climate response measures in fulfilment of current and future National Determined Contributions (NDC), without risking trade retaliation measures from trading partners; however, stresses the need to take into account the adverse impact of climate-related trade restrictions on developing countries and to take appropriate actions to mitigate them, such as climate funding, insurance, technology transfer and capacity building, in line with UNFCC related commitments and the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” (CBDR);
Amendment 81 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 e (new)
Paragraph 7 e (new)
7e. Stresses the need to account for the carbon “embodied” in imported goods and services; along this line, calls on the EU to take steps to re-launch discussions within the WTO on process and production methods to enable products to be differentiated in terms of their carbon footprint, energy footprint or technological standards; insists that such initiative should be accompanied by measures facilitating technology transfer both for climate adaptation and mitigation to accommodate the needs of developing countries;
Amendment 83 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 f (new)
Paragraph 7 f (new)
7f. Underlines that Intellectual Property Rights may hinder transfer of cleaner technologies; recalls that WTO- TRIPS flexibilities could contribute significantly to the transfer of climate- friendly technologies; calls on the EU to take the lead in the identification of the salient barriers to the dissemination of technologies in developing countries to address climate change and to strive to promote the adoption of a Declaration on “IPR and Climate Change” comparable to the Doha Declaration of 2001 on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, to foster the legal transfer of climate- friendly technology to developing countries, in compliance with the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC, notably the principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR);along this line, takes the view that EU FTAs with developing countries should include provisions that promote technology transfer and enable local content requirements in their public procurement and investment policies;
Amendment 85 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 g (new)
Paragraph 7 g (new)
7g. Calls on the Commission to actively work within the WTO in order to promote multilateral rules for sustainable management of Global Value Chains, including mandatory supply chain due diligence.