Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-05-09-Speech-1-098-000"
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"en.20110509.19.1-098-000"2
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"Madam President, today we are discussing a legislative proposal for emergency autonomous trade preferences for Pakistan. This proposal was tabled by the Commission at the express request of the European Council in the immediate aftermath of the floods that hit Pakistan in the summer of last year and brought widespread devastation to the country and to its people.
The Commission initially proposed applying exceptional measures for a period of three years. In its compromise proposal, which was reflected in the WTO waiver request, the Council limited the duration to two years, with the possibility of extending it by one more year. However, to limit the duration even further to one year would erode the advantages of the autonomous trade preferences measure, and they would become meaningless.
Let me also point out that a compromise reached in the Council on 10 November was based on subjecting seven textile and clothing products to tariff rate quotas rather than full liberalisation. This compromise became the basis for the subsequent request for a WTO waiver. However, this is not reflected in the European Parliament amendments, and as a result of the consultation with WTO members, it might be necessary to subject a few more products to tariff rate quotas.
The waiver, if granted, would constitute a maximum of preferences the EU could grant to Pakistan on those terms and, as a consequence, the regulation will have to reflect the content of the WTO waiver once it is agreed in the WTO. Let me also reassure you that the Commission will conduct an annual impact assessment on the autonomous trade preferences granted to Pakistan and present it to Parliament and the Council, and that is another reason not to reduce the duration of application of this instrument.
I thank the European Parliament for its cooperation on this sensitive issue. The Commission stands ready to work closely with Parliament in order to have this proposal adopted and show the EU’s determination to act responsibly towards countries in need.
I would like to thank the rapporteur and the Committee on International Trade for their hard work and their support for the proposal. The Commission proposal aims at the introduction of a unilateral and temporary suspension of import duties on 75 export items from Pakistan. These trade preferences would liberalise about a quarter of Pakistani imports to the EU and be available for two years, with a possible extension for another year.
The European Union is aware that such trade concessions, especially in sensitive sectors such as textiles, might have an impact on EU industry, and therefore we have ensured that a balance is kept between the needs of Pakistan and the interests of our own industry and other supplier countries.
The number of products selected is limited. We have set a ceiling on the liberalisation of very sensitive items, and liberalisation would only be of limited duration. In the meantime, we have also requested the World Trade Organisation to grant us a waiver of the applicable WTO rules to enable us to implement the proposed measures. As you know, we are still discussing this issue with other WTO members and hope to come to a solution soon.
The images of people having lost their livelihoods might not be present any more in everyone’s mind, but we should not forget the immense cost of those devastating floods, both in terms of humanitarian needs and economic devastation. These trade measures are not ‘stand-alone’, and come on top of the significant humanitarian and development assistance – amounting to EUR 480 million – that the EU has granted to Pakistan. However, ambitious trade measures are essential for the sustained economic recovery of Pakistan’s economy and should be part of our medium-term response to those unprecedented natural disasters. I therefore hope that Parliament will support the proposal.
Let me now turn to some of the amendments that have been proposed. I will not go into detail on all of them, but let me highlight the most important ones. I know that there are requests for making the granting of autonomous trade preferences conditional upon Pakistan respecting certain fundamental principles. I understand the concerns that may exist in that respect, and you are aware that human rights issues are an integral element of our long-term relationship with Pakistan. However, given the temporary nature of the waiver to address an emergency situation, the Commission believes those conditionalities would not be appropriate.
Our human rights dialogue, in the context of our Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Pakistan, is the appropriate forum to address such issues with Pakistan and reach sustainable solutions. As regards provisions that would oblige Pakistan to abstain from maintaining, introducing or increasing duties or charges having equivalent effect, or any other restriction on the export or import of certain products, I believe that such conditions would seriously undermine the granting of the preferences and are contrary to the spirit, the nature and the purpose of our regulation. Moreover, we cannot prohibit Pakistan, through this regulation, from implementing measures that are consistent with its international obligations.
On the other hand, we could agree to the introduction of a mechanism allowing the imposition of limits to duty-free imports for Pakistan tariff rate quotas where volumes of imports of products liberalised increase beyond certain levels. I also agree that preferences should be removed for any product causing or threatening to cause serious difficulties to a Union producer of like or directly competing products, as determined by an investigation carried out by the Commission. We could also agree with mechanisms to establish customs surveillance on imports covered by the regulation, linked with quarterly reporting. However, a prior surveillance mechanism would create an undue burden in terms of administrations’ licensing requirements.
I note, finally, that there are requests to limit the duration of the trade preferences to one year from the date on which the waiver takes effect. I think that would be very problematic."@en1
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