2017 m. Europos Komisija paskelbė dokumentą dėl globalizacijos suvaldymo. Taip Europos Sąjunga ir jos valstybės narės pradėjo diskusiją, kaip jos kartu galėtų suvaldyti globalizaciją, kad ji būtų tvari, su aiškia kryptimi ir visiems europiečiams atneštų naudos. Dėl to Europos Sąjunga dar stipriau turi prisidėti prie pasaulinių taisyklių formavimo, kad globalizacijos nauda tarp valstybių ir regionų būtų paskirstoma teisingai ir proporcingai.
Šiuo metu Europos Parlamento Tarptautinės prekybos komitetas svarsto pranešimą apie globalizacijos suvaldymą ir jo prekybos aspektus. ELP frakcijos pranešėja šiuo klausimu yra Laima Andrikienė.
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First of all, I would like to thank our Rapporteur Joachim Schuster for the Draft Report and let me share with you some thoughts regarding this draft report and our position on it.
Globalisation is a perpetual process whose impact has created a new set of political, economic and social challenges for the future that the EU will have to face and tackle.
We welcome the reflection paper “Harnessing Globalisation” and that the Commission has acknowledged that globalisation has to be fairly distributed, that it has not only positive but negative effects and these challenges have to be addressed with our various tools and trade is just one aspect among them.
Where our economy fails, democracy also suffers. Citizens are more empowered than ever, though many feel that democracy no longer serves them well. The response to globalization cannot bet to close borders.
The response to globalisation can not be to close borders - what I mean is to trade and people – but it should be the implementation and application of rules to put an end to the race on lower wages, poor conditions for employees, social dumping and exploitation. Businesses must stop unfair practices and multinational companies have to be made accountable for evading taxes and bypassing labour law. We have to ensure that when EU companies do business outside the EU they pass on their responsibilities and obligations throughout the supply chain.
And protectionism is an intellectually lazy answer to the challenges posed by globalisation.
The closure of borders and protectionism will have a domino effect for all, hurting importers, exporters and consumers.
That is why we need to meet these challenges with transparency and reassure our citizens of our strength and that we retained measures of control over the forces of globalisation.
To my mind, the report on the trade aspects of globalisation is quite short for such an important file. But this gives us the opportunity to improve it. Although it has many good points, in my opinion the report is too negative in general. It lacks of the positive effects of globalisation and we have to admit our positive achievements to harness globalisation, for example our trade policy, our trade instruments and our free trade agreements.
Our trade deals include commitments for both sides to the highest environmental, health and labour standards. By offering market access to developing countries, they are able to implement much needed reforms and it forces foreign governments to stop dumping and cheap exports to Europe.
So first, I think we should focus more on the acknowledgement of the positive side of our trade policy, how to shape our existing tools to the better result.
In some parts the report is focused too much on mentioning our or the WTO’s weaknesses. We should avoid pointing our fingers on the weaknesses only, on the contrary, we should show how to improve these shortcomings and how to strengthen the existing frameworks, how to shape and manage the existing tools and how to complete them.
Staying competitive is part of the answer to harness globalisation – especially given around a third of EU countries’ income comes from trade with the rest of the world.
With a good report we can support the reflection paper and the efforts of the Commission to respond to these challenges and opportunities of globalization and reach the goals of our global commitments, for example our sustainability and climate goals.
So, I am truly looking forward to the negotiations and hope that we can reach a good final result.