WRITTEN QUESTION E-2213/02

by Karin Junker (PSE) to the Commission

(22 July 2002)

Subject: Support for Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign

On 11 April 2002 Oxfam launched its Make Trade Fair campaign. This is a campaign by which Oxfam is seeking to facilitate access to European markets for poorer countries.

One of its demands is for the foundation of a new institution which will promote distribution and prevent oversupply, in order to boost prices to a fair level and ensure that this pricing is not subverted by agreements.

This should be accompanied by guaranteed access to new technology, and in particular to basic medicines, partly through the democratisation of the WTO.

Hitherto the Commission has given Fair Trade activities a rather low priority.

I should therefore like to ask the Commission whether, and if so in what form, it is supporting or intends to support Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign, particularly in the context of ACP cooperation.

Answer given by Mr Lamy on behalf of the Commission

(8 October 2002)

The Union was at the forefront of the promotion of a new trade round, which was successfully launched last November 2001 in Doha. The declared scope of this round is to foster the integration of developing countries in the world economy. Following the launch of the round, negotiations are ongoing in Geneva to reach that result and the outcome of these negotiations will certainly improve the access of developing countries' products to the European market. To this end, however, it should be noted that the Union did not wait for the new round in order to facilitate such access: the Everything but arms initiative that was launched beforehand basically opened the doors of the Union's market to all the products originating in the least developed countries.

While further access to the European and, possibly, other markets will be beneficial for the economies of most developing countries, this may not be sufficient for those countries that mainly export commodities as Oxfam rightly noted. The Commission is currently studying possible answers to this problem.

In the context of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations, the Commission also intends to address the problems linked with access to new technologies including medicines and it has already submitted its proposals in Geneva to this end.

With reference to improved access to medicines WTO Members agreed on a Declaration on the relation between health issues and the Trade related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPs) Agreement in Doha in November 2001: with regard to paragraph 6 in the Declaration the Community has proposed an amendment to article 31 of the TRIPs Agreement.

At the same time the Commission will continue to act to foster the transparency of the WTO as showed by the recently adopted decision of the WTO to facilitate the de-restriction of its documents.

In addition, the Commission intends to further the integration of developing countries in the world economy also at the bilateral and regional levels including especially at the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP) level where, in compliance with the Cotonou Agreement, the Community and the ACP are about to launch the negotiations of Economic Partnership Agreements.

As far as Fair trade activities are concerned, which private companies carry out, the Commission does and will continue to support them while assuring the respect of its international obligations. Furthermore, the Community is already actively engaged in international efforts to ensure that international commodity markets operate more transparently and efficiently.

Finally, since the launch of the campaign the Commission has been in regular contact with Oxfam through meetings and seminars and has been studying their proposals. This dialogue has been constructive and useful and will certainly continue throughout the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations, the Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations and beyond.