Progress: Procedure completed
| Role | Committee | Rapporteur | Shadows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead | INTA |
LANGE Bernd ( S&D)
|
Lead committee dossier:
Legal Basis:
RoP 136-p5
Legal Basis:
RoP 136-p5Events
The European Parliament adopted by 593 votes to 50, with 50 abstentions, a resolution on the EU Trade Policy Review.
Following the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 global supply chains and production lines have been disrupted, bringing to the fore the fact that the EU is dependent on non-EU sources, especially for some strategic sectors such as the medical and the pharmaceutical sectors. According to the resolution, the EU was already lagging behind other economies in terms of competitiveness before the pandemic. The disruption to international trade resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has now exacerbated already significant economic losses.
The EU’s trade policy review is taking place at a time when globally many politically-steered actions are being implemented in trade, economy, and finance, with long-term consequences.
Trade and ‘open strategic autonomy’
Open strategic autonomy is a unique EU concept meaning the EU should increase self-sufficiency and boost its own industry in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Parliament welcomed the debate on the concept, however, it called on the Commission to provide further details on its content.
Parliament also stressed that the EU, being one of the largest trading blocks in the world, would benefit from wider use of the euro in its international trade, as this would reduce exchange rate risk and other currency related costs in trade transactions. The EU’s trade strategy has the potential to contribute significantly to the recovery process after the current public health and economic crisis.
The Commission was called on to:
analyse how the resilience of EU’s supply chains can be increased, while enhancing production capacities in the EU; identify European strategic sectors and raw materials, and to proactively support businesses, especially SMEs, focusing on the current crisis as well as on potential future developments and providing support for climate neutrality.
Multilateral trading system
Parliament reaffirmed the EU’s commitment to the open, rules-based multilateral trading system, with a reformed WTO at its core, to improve its efficiency, stability and predictability.
Parliament called on the Commission to:
intensify its engagement in international fora and pursue an ambitious modernisation, strengthening and substantial reactivation of the WTO and its negotiating function and rulebook, with SDGs and the fight against climate change at its core; deepen its international cooperation with strategic partners, such as the USA and China, and monitor, analyse and address at global and bilateral level with international partners new barriers to trade including export restrictions and other distortions affecting essential goods, as well as to develop common criteria for the granting of sustainability-oriented subsidies for the post-pandemic recovery; update the WTO Pharmaceutical Agreement, while exploring the possibilities for a broader plurilateral initiative on healthcare products; ensure that the flexibilities in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) can be optimally used for critical medical products;
Strategic partners
Given that the USA is the EU’s most important trading partner, Parliament urged the Commission to build on this momentum to construct a positive EU-US trade agenda beyond tariff reductions. It called on the US to remove its tariffs imposed since 2017 and awaits the WTO ruling on the Airbus-Boeing dispute. It also urged the US to re-join the Paris climate agreement to facilitate future EU-US cooperation.
Parliament stressed the importance of the EU strategic relationship with China as a competitor, partner and systemic rival.
As regards Africa, new approaches should be adopted to re-shape economic, commercial and trade relations to promote fair and ethical trade.
Generalised Scheme of Preferences and unfair practices
Lastly, Parliament called on the Commission to adopt in good time the proposal for the new regulation applying a Generalised Scheme of Preferences, possibly with a view to increasing the number of countries committing to the GSP+ scheme.
It also underlined the importance of addressing anti-competitive practices with main trading partners and levelling the playing field for companies to create the conditions for recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and to enable the global transition towards a sustainable economy.
Documents
- Commission response to text adopted in plenary: SP(2021)129
- Results of vote in Parliament: Results of vote in Parliament
- Decision by Parliament: T9-0337/2020
- Oral question/interpellation by Parliament: B9-0024/2020
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0370/2020
- Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
- Amendments tabled in committee: PE659.021
- Amendments tabled in committee: PE659.021
- Oral question/interpellation by Parliament: B9-0024/2020
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0370/2020
- Commission response to text adopted in plenary: SP(2021)129
Activities
- Othmar KARAS
Plenary Speeches (2)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Bernd LANGE
- Udo BULLMANN
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Daniel BUDA
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Daniel CASPARY
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Dita CHARANZOVÁ
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Enikő GYŐRI
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Christophe HANSEN
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Agnes JONGERIUS
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Miapetra KUMPULA-NATRI
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Emmanuel MAUREL
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Gabriel MATO
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Cláudia MONTEIRO DE AGUIAR
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Helmut SCHOLZ
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Kathleen VAN BREMPT
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Saskia BRICMONT
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Jordi CAÑAS
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Anna CAVAZZINI
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Marie-Pierre VEDRENNE
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Jérémy DECERLE
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Margarida MARQUES
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Svenja HAHN
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Geert BOURGEOIS
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Jörgen WARBORN
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Łukasz KOHUT
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
- Barry ANDREWS
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2020/11/24 EU Trade Policy Review (debate)
Votes
B9-0370/2020 - Am 2 #
GUE/NGL
NI
ID
Verts/ALE
ECR
Renew
PPEB9-0370/2020 - Am 1 #
B9-0370/2020 - § 13/1 #
B9-0370/2020 - § 13/2 #
B9-0370/2020 - § 17/1 #
B9-0370/2020 - § 17/2 #
B9-0370/2020 - § 19/1 #
B9-0370/2020 - § 19/2 #
B9-0370/2020 - § 26/1 #
B9-0370/2020 - § 26/2 #
B9-0370/2020 - § 26/3 #
B9-0370/2020 - Résolution #
History
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