Mandelson announces EU bilateral trade drive
EUObserver.com, Belgium
Mandelson announces EU bilateral trade drive
By Honor Mahony
4 October 2006
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Often caught between the whims of protectionist and liberal member states, the European Commission on Wednesday firmly tied its colours to a liberal mast proposing a trade policy revamp focused on new markets and stamping out protectionism.
Announcing the trade paper, EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said "The core message of today’s review is clear: rejection of protectionism at home; activism in opening markets abroad."
Mr Mandelson made the announcement shortly after France and Italy got their way in a bitter battle over shoe imports resulting in a protectionist two-year anti-dumping regime being imposed on Chinese and Vietnamese shoes.
Rejecting the calls of double-standards, Mr Mandelson said "If we are going to stand for free trade we have to keep proper defences against unfair trade."
"An open market is not just a lowered tariff, it is a market in which European companies get a fair deal, with freedom to compete and legal protection when they do."
Brussels’ new trade orientation, which over the coming weeks will take the form of a renewed trade strategy with China, protection of intellectual property rights and removing barriers to trade both home and abroad, also has a strong bilateral focus, with emerging markets in Asia to come under the European Commission’s beady trade eye.
"’The commission will set up a new programme of bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) with key partners to build on WTO rules by tackling issues which are not ready for multilateral discussion and by preparing the ground for the next level of multilateral liberalisation,’ says the Brussels paper.
"The key economic criteria for new FTAs should be market potential - particularly the emerging markets of Asia."
Multilateralism?
The bilateral push comes at time when the multilateral WTO talks have been derailed due to major differences between the EU and US over how much aid they should be allowed to give their respective farmers.
Mr Mandelson said he strongly supported the so-called Doha WTO round of talks but added "Doha first has never meant Doha alone."
European businesses welcome the new strategy with UNICE president Ernest-Antoine Seillière saying it will "help Europe tackle the major challenge of the 21st century: competition from the rising emerging trade powers of Asia and South America."
NGOs have condemned the open markets drive, however.
Environment and social implications
"The new emphasis on regional and bilateral free trade deals will undermine multilateralism and calls into question the EU’s stated commitment to the World Trade Organisation negotiations," said aid agency Oxfam.
"It is astoundingly hypocritical for the EU to call on other countries to open their markets and deal with non-tariff barriers when they have similar barriers in place and continue to pay vast sums in trade-distorting farm subsidies," it continues.
Meanwhile a transatlantic coalition of development organisations, Seattle to Brussels (S2B), was similarly critical arguing that the trade initiative will lead to a lowering of social and environmental standards and increased poverty in developing countries.
"By imposing ’least trade restrictive’ criteria, the EU is putting the breakdown of regulation at the core of its external competitiveness strategy. It will also place severe limits upon the capacity of governments to set their own social and environmental protection policies," it said.
