16 Amendments of Miroslav ČÍŽ related to 2020/2117(INI)
Amendment 50 #
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 on the Commission, therefore, to presentspeed up its review of the 15-point action plan on TSD chapters without delayso it can be implemented in all ongoing negotiations without exception; expects the review to address the enforceability of TSD commitments as a matter of urgency, 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 development11 ; suggests that, as a minimum, recent advances in enforceability should be applied to EU trade policy, namely the ability 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; __________________ 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 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Points out that high up-front costs, which will only repay themselves over time, and a lack of know-how and equipment are currently preventing developing countries from ‘going green’; demands that the Commission use all trade instruments and development cooperation policies at its disposal to increase financial support, technical assistance, technology transfers and digital penetration in order to empower developing countries and enable them to achieve sustainable resilience and to better implement due diligence across the supply chain;
Amendment 91 #
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 accompanied by capacity-building measures to enable it to function effectively; while asking the Commission to cooperate more intensively with the European civil society represented in the EESC;
Amendment 139 #
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, especially for medical and pharmaceutical goods; insists that the EU should overcome these undesirable dependencies via a mix of policies to incentivise companies to stockpile, diversify sourcing strategies and promote nearshoring, - which could create new trading opportunities for partners in the Eastern and Southern Neighbourhoods - and reshoring where necessary;
Amendment 171 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Welcomes the proposal by several government leaders for an international treaty on the pandemic response and calls for this to include a strong trade pillar; underlines that the international trade framework must foster cooperation and put into place both structural and rapid response mechanisms to help governments overcome the challenges associated with health emergencies; maintains that progress needs to be made in the areas of transparency on available stocks, global supply networks, production capacities and product pricing of essential health products, the implementation and development of exemptions for public health security in the intellectual property rights framework, increasing the global mobility of essential services, protecting and fostering the resilience of SMEs, and developing an intersectional approach to tackle the negative impact of health crises on gender equality, income equality, and the position of minorities;
Amendment 172 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 b (new)
Paragraph 16 b (new)
16b. Calls to establish a new Committee on Trade and Health on the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference in order to prepare guidelines on how governments can implement existing exemptions and flexibilities in international trade law to increase public health security, which mechanisms must be put in place to improve the global response to health emergencies and to lay the groundwork for a trade pillar for the negotiations on a future international treaty on the pandemic response;
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Emphasises, in this connection, the detrimental effects of unilateral measures such as export restrictions and prohibitions and the lack of transparency on global stocks and the subsequent price speculation on scarce essential goods, not least for low and middle-income countries; calls, therefore, for the adoption of the WTO trade and health initiative by the end of 2021 and for greatera new regulation to be drawn up that is much more demanding on transparency on the supply and, production and cost of essential medical products and services;
Amendment 176 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Calls for a review of the European Directive on Intellectual Property Rights to ensure that patents do not hinder access to vaccines for COVID-19, to demand the necessary transparency from the industry and a cost-benefit analysis per product that allows for a fair and reasonable patent term and the necessary flexibility in exceptional situations for public health reasons;
Amendment 177 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 b (new)
Paragraph 17 b (new)
17b. Calls on the European Commission to make efficient use of its power of centralized public purchasing of vaccines to demand the necessary transparency and contract compliance from suppliers;
Amendment 182 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Is concerned about the recent rise in export restrictions on vaccines by the main manufacturing countries such as the US, the UK, China and India and by, to a lesser extent, the EU, and emphasises that this endangers the rapid global scaling up of vaccine production capacity; urges the Commission to engage with producing countries to swiftly eliminate export barriers and to replace the export authorisation mechanism with an export and import notification requirement; insists on having timely and comprehensive access to such data;
Amendment 189 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Underlines that the vaccines against COVID-19 and its variants are a global public good and that multilateral efforts should be focused on the equitable distribution of vaccines across the world, ramping up global production capacities and technology transfers, including in low and middle- income countries; strongly welcomes, in this regard, 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 countries; calls for more international efforts to speed up the delivery of vaccines to COVAX;
Amendment 198 #
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, alleviating 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 of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in order to ensure that countries do not face retaliation over COVID-19 related patent infringements during the pandemic; calls on the Commission to re-evaluate the TRIPS+ commitments in EU trade agreements in light of lessons learned, and to improve the work on increasing the effectiveness of IPR flexibilities such as, but not limited to, compulsory licensing in the context of bilateral negotiations and dialogue;
Amendment 232 #
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, in particular, the need to address competitive distortions caused by industrial subsidies and state-owned enterprises; calls for the Commission to actively pursue a solution to the mismatch between the level of development and the number of commitments undertaken within the international trading system; is convinced that EU leadership is crucial for any meaningful WTO reform to succeed; considers essential that the next WTO ministerial conference address the debate on intellectual property rights, the role of international trade in protecting the world from health threats, and also address the sanctions regime to prevent that the consequences of breaching international trade rules by some members, are paid by sectors not responsible for non- compliance;
Amendment 245 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Supports thea new, forward-looking wide transatlantic agenda based on common interests and shared values; urges the Commission and the, giving impulse and priority to the development of the EU relations with all the Americas, based on common interests and shared values, aiming to counterbalance the development of the economic and trade cooperation in the Pacific, to achieve meaningful WTO reform and to find common solutions to common problems; in the new political context invites the new US administration to closely cooperate closely in orderwith the EU institutions to secure a level playing field and to agree on ambitious social, labour and environmental standards and build on each other’s experience to enforce these more efficiently enforce them; calls for joint efforts to overcomeget out of the pandemic, speed up the economic recovery and facilitate trade in vaccines and essential medical goods; reiterates that we should work together to achieve meaningful WTO reform and find common solutions to common problems;
Amendment 264 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Welcomes the TPRrade Policy Review’s engagement towards Africa and the Eastern and Southern Nneighbourhoods and looks forward to concrete steps tofor deepening the EU’s relations with these partners; reiterates the importance of a strategic and sustainable partnership with Southe-East Asia, and India and Latin America; calls on all the EU institutions to maintain as a priority in a higher rank of our trade and development cooperation, the generation of greater resilience in front of pandemics and health emergencies;
Amendment 274 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 b (new)
Paragraph 27 b (new)
27b. Stresses that the EU needs to actively support the diversification of inner-African value chains;