Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-14-Speech-4-019"
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"en.20041014.3.4-019"2
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"Mr President, I welcome the plans for serious revision of the GSP, which is long overdue. I also welcome the Council's recent conclusions, which very clearly demand meaningful consultation with the European Parliament. It is a matter of regret that the Commission's Communication was not the result of a full stakeholder consultation and did not appear sufficiently in advance to allow for meaningful consultation before the release of the next regulation.
It is vital that Parliament and all other interested stakeholders have a proper opportunity to input into this very important process, and I am glad that Commissioner Lamy has agreed to that.
In terms of substance, it is clear that the GSP urgently needs to be simplified since it is clearly not working properly. The rules of origin requirements are far too strict, with the result that a large proportion of developing-country exports to the EU fail to gain preferential access because they are deemed to be non-originating. One of the justifications for strict rules of origin is that they should promote so-called backward linkages, i.e. the production of intermediate goods in developing countries themselves. Yet the experience of this clearly demonstrates that rules of origin are not an appropriate instrument to achieve that goal. In fact, most developing countries are small, with little capacity to develop a full supply chain.
Sri Lanka is a classic example, having developed a thriving garment sector but still not having the capacity to supply textiles to support that industry. It relies essentially on an indirect instrument of trade policy to foster a supply response in developing countries that is likely to be much less efficient and much more vulnerable to abuse than straightforward financial incentives or technical assistance or infrastructure provision for the industries concerned.
I am pleased that Mr Lamy says that we are going to have some real action on rules of origin. The Commission should be looking at far-reaching proposals, such as proposals that would in general allow a least-developed country export to qualify for duty-free access to the EU if at least 40% of a good's value is added in a least-developed country that is not necessarily the final country of export.
In the case of textiles and clothing, we clearly need to go even further, because some of the poorest countries will face enormous shocks when the Multifibre Agreement is withdrawn. Organisations like Oxfam have made some very detailed proposals in this area.
My last point relates to textiles again. When the MFA is withdrawn, some of the poorest countries will face major problems. I would suggest that developing countries which are highly dependent on textiles and clothing, but are not necessarily classified as least-developed countries, should be exempted temporarily from the existing rules of origin requirements. This applies particularly to countries that obtain more than 50% of their current export revenue from textiles and clothing. I would be very interested in the views of the Commission and Council on that proposal."@en1
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