Activities of Helmut SCHOLZ related to 2020/2117(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the trade-related aspects and implications of COVID-19
Amendments (28)
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the mainstreaming of the European Green Deal into the communication on the Trade Policy Review (TPR), which emphasises prominently the need for a trade policy promoting greater sustainability in line with the Union's commitment of fully implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and calls for a concrete action plan to make this ambition a reality by 2030;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Welcomes the incorporation of the Paris Agreement as an essential element in all trade, investment and partnership agreements; stresses that ratification of the International Labour Organization (ILO) core conventions and respect for human rights are requirements for concluding FTApoints out that more than 110 countries have committed to climate neutrality by 2050 and China by 2060 and calls to make climate neutrality commitments a condition for trade agreements; stresses that ratification of the International Labour Organization (ILO) core conventions and respect for human rights are requirements for concluding FTAs; points out the quality and relevance of many further ILO conventions and calls on the Union to be more ambitious in its agreement with developed partners and to work on incorporating reference to advanced ILO conventions when reviewing existing trade agreements and in future agreements; asks for ambitious chapters on gender and on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to be included in all trade agreements;
Amendment 52 #
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, and to move from conventional free trade agreements to SDG cooperation agreements with a significant trade component; calls on the Commission, therefore, to present its review of the 15- point action plan on TSD chapters without delay; 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; calls on the Commission to look into the options for creating an instrument to punish individual companies responsible for social or environmental dumping or crimes; __________________ 11Non-paper from the Netherlands and France on trade, social economic effects and sustainable development, accessed at ‘the Netherlands at International Organisations (permanentrepresentations.nl)’.
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Points out that brown goods still receive preferential treatment over green goods and that tariffs and trade barriers are working against sustainable trade, and calls on the Commission to launch a new effort to conclude an Environmental Goods Agreement during the WTO Ministerial Conference 12; demands that the Commission devise instruments to tackle these distortions and walk the talk of the Green Deal by implementing it in all aspects of trade policy;
Amendment 65 #
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 at its disposal to increase financial support, technical assistance including in renewable energy production, technology transfers and digital penetrisation, in order to empower developing countries and enable them to achieve sustainable resilience; calls for lending schemes of the EIB of increased volume in support of this policy objective, in particular with regard to investment in solar energy and green hydrogen production, as well as decentralised renewable energy sources;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls for the EU to take a leading role at a multilateral level to end environmentally harmful subsidies by advocating transparency and strict regulation and disciplines in trade agreements and at the World Trade Organization (WTO); stresses the importance of drawing up sustainability impact assessments on an ex-ante, intermediate and ex-post basis; stresses the need to develop a comprehensive framework with concrete targets to advance the SDGs, the Green Deal and the ILO Decent Work Agenda in trade and investment agreements; emphasises that new agreements should only be concluded once these targets have been fulfilled and that existing agreements should be revised accordingly;
Amendment 90 #
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 (DAGs) must be clearly defined in the EU’s international agreements and that financial assistance must be accompanied by capacity-building measures to enable ithe DAGs to function effectively; calls on respective specialised committees and monitoring groups of the European Parliament to establish a regular structured consultation with the DAGs;
Amendment 98 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 2
Subheading 2
Fair, resilient, social and green value chains
Amendment 104 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Stresses the importance of fair value chains that respect human rights, labour rights and environmental standards; recalls that mandatory due diligence throughout the entire supply chain is a necessary instrument to achieve this; stresses that more attention should be paid to the vulnerable position of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), especially in developing countries, whereas large companies are more likely to overcome a sudden drop in demand; emphasises the importance of predictable long term orders and takes note of the respective successful ordering schemes in the Fair Trade sector;
Amendment 106 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Calls for the EU to ensure trade works also for the economically disadvantaged; in this regard recalls that the specific actions to promote ‘fair and ethical trade schemes’ to which the Commission committed in the ‘Trade for All’ strategy have become even more relevant under the current circumstances given that Fair Trade bottom-up initiatives can ensure that trade benefits the economically disadvantaged actors in the supply chain; calls on the Commission to promote Fair Trade initiatives through EU programs involving young people and the private sector, in external action in general, in the implementation of chapters on trade and sustainable development, through EU delegations as well as by rewarding best practices and facilitating knowledge exchange amongst EU local, regional, national authorities, civil society, schools and universities, including through the extension of the ‘EU cities for fair and ethical trade award’ to schools and universities and the setting up of an annual Fair Trade week hosted in Brussels by the European Commission; demands the European Commission to report on the support of Fair Trade initiatives by the EU and the member states;
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Notes that global value chains often involve an uneven distribution of risks, particularly in the garment sector; deplores the fact that during the pandemic this uneven distribution has led to European businesses offloading the costs of lower demand onto producers in developing countries by cancelling orders that were already produced and in some cases even shipped; calls on the Commission to engage with local governments, the private sector and civil society to achieve a fairer distribution of risks across the supply chain; points out that promoting an international circular economy would help to mitigate those risks involved;
Amendment 120 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Stresses the importance of ensuring fair competition and a level playing field for European businesses in both the internal market and third-country markets; stresses, in this regard, the importance of trade defence instruments and calls on the Commission to swiftly complete the EU’s trade defence toolbox through legislative proposals in 2021, giving priority to an instrument to tackle distortions caused by foreign subsidies and state-owned enterprises and to the conclusion of negotiations on the International Procurement Instrument12 ; has observed the importance of public financial intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic; __________________ 12Amended proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 January 2016 on the access of third- country goods and services to the Union’s internal market in public procurement and procedures supporting negotiations on access of Union goods and services to the public procurement markets of third countries (COM(2016)0034).
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Is convinced that openness should go hand in hand with safeguarding our strategic sectors and should be closely connected with an ambitious, forward- looking industrial policy in line with the Green Deal and digital strategy, creating quality jobs and ensuring that Europe plays a crucial role in the production of innovative goods and future services; emphasises at the same time that public investment, and the creation of policy driven strategic incentives and subsidies are crucial instruments to develop the technologies and infrastructure needed to combat the climate catastrophe; welcomes the enormous public investments announced by the Biden administration and expects them to boost also global economy; notes the dimension of public investment in latest technologies and infrastructure in China and calls for an EU investment plan to match with innovation speed and infrastructure roll- out; is convinced that such programmes must contribute to the necessary social and ecological restructuring of the economies on a global scale;
Amendment 133 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Is convinced that the EU isand other world regions are too dependent on a limited number of suppliers for certain critical goods and services; insists that the EU should overcome these undesirable dependenciavoid future shortages via a mix of policies to incentivise companies to stockpile, diversify sourcing strategies and promote nearshoringproduction; calls on the Commission to support similar strategic plans of the African Union, and to encourage also other regions to become better prepared for future crises; points out that an increase in global production is needed to overcome shortages persisting in the world with regard to access to medical treatment, medical supplies and medicines, clean water, food and shelter, which could also create new trading opportunities for partners in the Eastern and Southern Neighbourhoods;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Notes that the EU's food supply chains remained operational during the pandemic, while according to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), COVID-19 brought up to 265 million people at risk of acute food shortages in 2020 in low and middle-income countries, a figure up 130 million compared with 2019; notes that the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), which brings together the principal trading countries of agricultural commodities with the aim of enhancing food market transparency and the policy response for food security, can be regarded as an example of good practiceserved high income countries well and their food imports well; calls on the Commission to explore with the United Nations whether this model could be used inadapted in order to ensure food supplies globally, and to investigate whether a reformed system could be applied for other value chains as well;
Amendment 151 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Commission to come up with a digital trade strategy to increase the market access of European businesses and protect EU citizens’ rights under the GDPR13 ; underlines the acceleration of the digital revolution due to COVID-19 and stresses the importance of the EU taking the lead in setting standards for a sustainable, digital-driven global economy and keeping international data flows open; calls on the Commission to establish the right to regulate in the public interest also in the context of algorithm transparency; __________________ 13Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General Data Protection Regulation) (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 1).
Amendment 152 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Stresses that the pandemic has disrupted consumption patterns, leading to an unprecedented increase in digital commerce and online shopping; is concerned about the many insufficiently regulated collateral effects of this trade revolution, in particular the precariousness and lack of social protection of delivery staff, the working conditions of online platform employees, the increase in counterfeiting and the failure to collect VAT; hopes that the resolution of these system failures will be fully integrated into the European Union’s trade policies;
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Underlines that an overhaul of international trade governance has, prioritising cooperation over competition, could play an important role to play in the rapid development of medical treatments and vaccines, the rapid scaling up of production, the development of resilient global value chains and equitable market access for the whole world; stresses, in this context, that the COVID-19 pandemic must be used to provide impetus for more concerted international cooperation and to boost global preparedness for health emergencies;
Amendment 191 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Underlines that the vaccines against COVID-19 and its variants are a global public good which must be accessible to all, and that multilateral efforts should be focused on 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;
Amendment 195 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19a. Welcomes the initiative of India, South Africa, and supported by nearly 100 countries, seeking a temporary waiver from the WTO Agreement on Trade- Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights for the manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines;
Amendment 196 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19a. Welcomes the European Citizens' Initiative "Right to Cure";
Amendment 212 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Invites the Commission to set out concrete and specific actions and a roadmap to implement the concept of open strategic autonomy; stresses that the EU’s market strength, values and adherence to cooperation, fairness and rule-based trade should be the basis of such openness; strongly recommends that the EU seeks out partnerships with like-minded partners; stresses, however, that where cooperation is not possible, the EU should pursue its interests through autonomous measures to protect its values and fight unfair trading practices in accordance with international law;
Amendment 227 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Welcomes the TPR’s affirmation of multilateralism and extensive proposals for the necessary in-depth reform of the WTO; shares the Commission’s emphasis on sustainable development in its vision for WTO reform and urges the Commission to bring to bear all efforts to implement a sustainable development agenda; stresses the importance of taking forward the WTO initiative on trade and climate, and on health; reiterates its support for an Environmental Goods Agreement; calls on all governments in MC12 to deliver on rules to prohibit subsidies that threaten the sustainability of fishing;
Amendment 228 #
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;
Amendment 239 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Shares the suggestion made in the TPR that the G20 should cooperate and take a leading role in achieving carbon neutrality worldwide; stresses, however, that in order for this approach to be effective, some members will need to raise their emission reduction commitments; calls on the Commission to deliver an efficient carbon border adjustment mechanism;
Amendment 248 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Supports the new, forward-looking transatlantic agenda based on common interests and shared values; urges the Commission and the US administration to cooperate closely in order to secure a level playing field and to agree on ambitious social and environmental standards and build on each other’s experience to enforce these more efficiently; calls for joint efforts to overcome the pandemic, speed up the economic recovery and facilitate trade in essential medical goods; reiterates that we should work together to achieve meaningful WTO reform and find common solutions to common problems; stresses the importance of achieving a Geneva Consensus and the need for international organisations to work jointly on mastering the global challenges;
Amendment 253 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Is aware of the importance of the EU’s multifaceted trade relationship with China; firmly believes that EU-China trade relations require a more balanced and reciprocal approach; stresses that the ratification process of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment can only begin once the EU has the requisite autonomous measures in place, including a ban onshould begin after both sides have agreed on a road map including a time schedule to fulfil their commitments in the agreement; calls on the Union to establish its modernised set of legislation accompanying the Union's trade policy before the CAI enters into force, including due diligence legislation effectively preventing products made using forced labour from entering the EU, an upgraded trade defence toolbox and a working sanctions mechanism on human rights; demands that the Commission move forward with thean Investment and Market Access Agreement with Taiwan once the CAI has entered into force;
Amendment 268 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Welcomes the TPR’s engagement towards Africa and the Eastern and Southern Neighbourhoods and lookcalls forward to concrete steps to deepen the EU’s relations with these partners, including in the field of energy; reiterates the importance of a strategic and sustainable partnership with Southeast Asia, India and Latin America;