Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-19-Speech-1-098"
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"en.20080519.22.1-098"2
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"Mr President, I should like to thank Parliament for giving us the opportunity to discuss access to raw materials, which is an issue that is high on the European Union agenda, especially in the light of our competitiveness agenda. Let me first thank the rapporteur and the shadow rapporteurs for the report, which embraces numerous areas such as climate change, poverty alleviation and development.
All means will have to be used to their maximum. A sustainable and coherent policy on access to raw materials would therefore combine: firstly, negotiations securing international commitments in the WTO and bilateral context; secondly, enforcement of WTO rules and existing agreements; and thirdly soft measures such as dialogue and alliance-building. While none of these elements is new, it is their combination and their coherent use which will determine their strength. This will be discussed at a conference with stakeholders later this year.
Considering the importance of access to raw materials, the Commission welcomes the discussions in Parliament on this issue. The Commission particularly welcomes the amendments to the first draft of the report. The report now highlights more clearly the significance of this issue. It proposes ways to tackle this issue in a constructive manner, such as enforcement of agreements and negotiations with partner countries. We stand ready to fully cooperate with Parliament in designing and implementing our further strategy.
Development is indeed a key issue in this context. I will therefore briefly touch on development issues, before addressing our concerns and actions regarding the proliferation of measures restricting access to raw materials.
The fight for poverty alleviation and development, as well as food security, is high on the Commission’s agenda. You are well aware that the European Union is the world’s largest donor of development funding. Also in the specific field of raw materials, the Commission has undertaken several development-oriented programmes: for instance, through FLEX, the Commission supports developing countries’ national budgets, where there has been a drop in export-related fiscal revenue.
The Commission also promotes the transparent management of tax revenues generated by the exploitation of raw materials and natural resources through several initiatives such as EITI, the Kimberley Process and the FLEGT programme. Let me also refer to our Everything But Arms programme, which grants duty-free access to imports of all products from least developed countries (except arms), allowing them to diversify their exports.
Let me now turn to our key concern, which is from the trade perspective. It takes two to trade. We need to import and we need to export. It is therefore critical to ensure that access to raw materials in third countries is free from unjustified distortions such as quotas, export duties and export bans.
Today, unfortunately, this is not the case. On the contrary, third countries’ appetite to impose export restrictions is increasing. Our specific concerns are those imposed by some key emerging economies as part of their aggressive industrial policy objectives. Let me underline that we are not focusing on poorer developing economies but rather on large emerging economies.
Measures imposed by these countries result in distorted competition at global level which damages European industry. Unfortunately, the size of the problem is growing. By now at least 20 countries have put in place measures affecting exports of importance to the European Union. We have counted over 450 restrictions affecting various raw materials. Most, if not all, European industrial sectors are concerned, directly or indirectly.
What can be done? The work carried out so far shows that there is no quick-fix solution even if the elimination of export restrictions is high on our agenda already, be it in bilateral free trade agreements or in the World Trade Organisation, but we will do more.
First, it will be important to develop an overall strategy for access to raw materials. In this respect, the Commission is working on a communication which will include an important trade component. Any such strategy evidently should fully and coherently take up all policy areas, including critical issues such as food security, development and the environment."@en1
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