31 Amendments of Yannick JADOT related to 2018/0093M(NLE)
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 8 a (new)
Citation 8 a (new)
- having regard to its resolution on the negotiations for the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) of 3 February 2016
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 8 b (new)
Citation 8 b (new)
- having regard to its recommendations of 13December 2017 to the Council and the Commission following the inquiry into money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 8 c (new)
Citation 8 c (new)
- having regard to the European Economic and Social Committee’s Opinion of 15 February 2018 on Trade and Sustainable Development chapters (TSD) in EU Free Trade Agreements (FTA),
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the EU and Singapore share the samesome important fundamental values, including democracy, rule of law, respect for human rights, cultural and linguistic diversity and a strong commitment to the multilateral trading system, while diverging in the fundamental value of press and political freedoms and civil liberties;
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas this is the first bilateral trade agreement concluded between the EU and an ASEAN member state and an important stepping stone towards a region-to-region FTA; whereas the agreement will also serveshould not be regarded as a benchmark for the agreements the EU is currently negotiating with the other main ASEAN economies, given its lack to reflect the value based approach to trade of the EU’s “Trade for All” strategy;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
F a. whereas Singapore has a "light touch" data protection regime considered weak even compared to other Asian countries data protection legislation, which is not nearly reaching the level of EU data protection standards;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F b (new)
Recital F b (new)
F b. whereas, in its Resolution on TiSA negotiations, the Parliament has requested that an unequivocal gold standard’ clause should be included in all trade agreements to ensure that the public utilities clause applies to all modes of supply and to any services considered to be public services by European, national or regional authorities, in any sector and irrespective of the service's monopoly status;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G a (new)
Recital G a (new)
G a. whereas, following the 2008 financial crisis, the tendency to consider the size and expansion of the financial sector as one of the causes of the crisis emerged, as well as a debate on the risks posed to financial stability by the liberalisation of financial services;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas the trade and sustainability impact assessment on the EU-ASEAN FTA of 2009 concluded that this bilateral FTA will be mutually beneficial in terms of national income, GDP and employment; whereas a trade and sustainability impact assessment particularly for EU-Singapore trade relations and for a more recent period has not been produced;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I a (new)
Recital I a (new)
I a. whereas the actual overall level of transparency during the negotiations between 2010 and 2013 has been insufficient and no EU textual proposals were published before April 2018; whereas the ratification by national Parliaments is not requested for the FTA, a EU-only agreement; whereas the timeframe of the ratification does not allow Parliament to scrutinize the negotiated text in any appropriate manner;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. WelcomesTakes note of the signing in Brussels, on 19 October 2018, of the FTA;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that negotiations were originally concluded in 2012 and regrets the long delay in bringing forward the agreement for ratificatiothe Council mandate for the FTA negotiations derive from the Region-to-Region mandate with ASEAN of the Council of April 2007 and that negotiations were originally concluded in 2012; observes that the FTA is an old fashioned agreement which fails to incorporate the value oriented approach to trade of the Commission’s “Trade for All” strategy of 2015 and that it falls behind standards set in more recent FTAs with Canada and Japan;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Notes that in the current context of raising protectionism and citizens’ justified concerns about unfair globalisation, old fashioned trade agreements are no longer tenable and regrets the missed opportunity for the EU to introduce new innovative trade rules in the Singapore FTA at these challenging times;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses theat the only economic and strategic importance of this agreement, as is the fact that Singapore is a hub forof EU- based multinationals for market access to the entire ASEAN region and re-imports into the EU as this will avoid EU exportercompanies being at a competitive disadvantage in respect of businesses from the other CPTPP and RCEP countries; underlines the scarce value of this FTA for European SMEs;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes that Singapore had already removed most of its tariffs on EU products and that this agreement will eliminate the few remaining ones completely as of its entry into force; notes that the EU has granted regionally cumulative Rules of Origin to Singapore applicable to all ASEAN members maintaining preferential tariff relations with the EU which will strengthen the role of Singapore as a hub and port of final shipment for global supply chain products; warns that this kind of trade facilitation for globally acting companies is not answering the public request for meaningful global trade oriented at sustainable development and climate change mitigation as long as the Singapore FTA fails to include strong and enforceable rules on corporate due diligence and social responsibility;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Underlines that the agreement will grant EU companies better access to the Singapore services market such as in financial, telecommunications and postal services and that such liberalisation follows a ‘positive list’ approach; underlines that Singapore is one of the most important market places for global finance; is therefore concerned by the fact that the FTA includes an extensively broad definition of financial services, covering over-the-counter markets for derivative products and transferable securities, and prohibits measures of preventing systemic risks in the financial sector, such as the possibility to cap assets of financial institutions, to separate retail and investment banks, to limit equity participations of traditional banks in less regulated institutions, to allow financial institutions only as subsidiaries, or to permit the use of derivative products only for risk mitigation purposes; regards the FTA therefore as a missed opportunity to establish new and higher standards in the financial sector in order to prevent from a repetition of the global financial crisis of 2008;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Is appalled by the fact that the FTA restricts the use of the prudential carve-out clause for financial services by a necessity test;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6 b. reminds that the financial service commitments of the EU could hinder proposals for more prudent regulations in the EU , such as the Regulation on Single Parent Undertakings regarding capital requirements for foreign financial service suppliers of systemic relevance in the EU;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Welcomes Singapore’s signing on 21 June 2017 of the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) for implementing the global standard for the automatic exchange of information for tax purposes and its notification to the OECD on 30 June 2017 of its intention to activate automatic exchanges under that agreement with all the EU Member States for which there was no bilateral agreement for the same purpose in place; recalls, however, that independent NGOs such as Oxfam place Singapore on a grey list of global tax havens and that the character of the FTA caters mainly to tax avoidance and profit shifting strategies of EU-based multinationals;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Stresses that the agreement recognises the right of Member States at all levels to define and provide public services and does not prevent governments from bringing any privatised service back in to the public sectoronly in its most rudimentary form of a horizontal reservation in the Service Schedule for Mode-III Establishments applying to public utilities defined merely as “economic activities considered as public utilities at a national or local level“ and restricted to “public monopolies or to exclusive rights granted to private operators”; underlines that this formulation does not reflect the needed changes applied in more modern FTAs in order to not prevent governments from bringing any privatised service back in to the public sector; believes that the public utility exception in its current formulation is not appropriate to protect services of general interest and services of general economic interest; is particularly concerned that the FTA includes Private- Public-Partnerships (PPPs) allowing the direct participation of Singapore-based companies;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10 a. Retains that the cross-border data flow commitments in Chapter 8 - including for financial services - do not provide for sufficient safeguards on data privacy and are incompatible with the EU data protection regime; underlines that the notion that electronic commerce “must be fully compatible with international standards of data protection” is entirely insufficient to protect European data protection standards; retains that the electronic commerce chapter cannot enter into force until an agreement on data protection is achieved which raises Singapore standards to the level of EU standards and fully upholds the EU standards;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10 b. Rejects the notion of “retail price damages” for copyright infringers contained in the Intellectual Property Chapter (Article 11.44.2) as unproportioned; recalls Parliament’s rejection of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) which contained a limited principle of retail price damages;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 c (new)
Paragraph 10 c (new)
10 c. Retains that the Intellectual Property chapter unduly restricts the availability of affordable generic medicines;
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 d (new)
Paragraph 10 d (new)
10 d. Retains that a modern Intellectual Property chapter in line with commitments deriving from the Paris Agreement would need to provide for exceptions, waivers and peace clauses with regard to the patent conditions for key climate technologies; regards in this sense the IP chapter in the FTA as a missed opportunity to set new climate friendly patent standards;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Underlines that the agreement safeguards the EU’s right to apply its own standards to all goods and services sold in the EU and upholds; is, however, concerned that the EU’s precautionary principle is not explicitly mentioned as a binding element of all EU standard setting, which needs to be fully respected by all trade partners;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. EmphasisDeplores that this is a proregressive trade agreement and that both Parties committed in the trade and sustainable development (TSD) chapter only to ensure a high level of environmental and labour protection while failing to provide for a binding commitment of Singapore to ratify and effectively implement the two core ILO Conventions not ratified by Singapore so far, namely C087 - Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention and C111 - Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, as well as to re- install C105 - Abolition of Forced Labour;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Recalls that the Parties committed to make sustained efforts towards ratifying and effectively implementing the fundamental ILO conventions; welcomes the information provided so far by the Government of Singapore in relation to its compliance with three outstanding ILO conventions, namely those on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, on Discrimination and on Forced Labour, and expectin this context the repressive character of Singapore's governments regarding press freedom - a category in which it ranks 153rd out of 175 in the ranking of Reporters without Borders - and regarding political freedom and civil liberties, categories where the country ranks Singapore to further engage with the ILO with a view to progressing towards full alignment with their content and ultimately pursuing their ratification the lower end in the rankings of Reporters without Borders;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. WelcomesRetains that the commitment to effectively implement multilateral environmental agreements such as the Paris Agreement on climate change andnd development agreements are insufficient as long as the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN are not explicitly mentioned as binding obligations for both partners; welcomes the commitments to the sustainable management of forests and fisheries;
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14 a. Asks the Commission to carry out an ex-post sustainability impact assessment after three years of implementation of the FTA and to immediately activate the amendment procedure in case of incompatibilities with sustainable development and the SDGs;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Recalls that the EU-Singapore Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) envisages the possibility for the EU to suspend the FTA in case of fundamental human rights violations by Singapore; retains that this provision would need to be reflected in the Preamble of the FTA, subject to its Dispute Settlement mechanism, in order to be effectively respected;
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Calls on the Commission to trigger the general review clause of the agreement as soon as possible in order to strengthen the enforceability of labour and environmental provisions including through a sanctions-based mechanism as a last resort; believes that only a trade and sustainable development chapter with a credible enforcement mechanism providing for sanctions or the suspension of trade preferences would make the Parties’ commitments effective;