WRITTEN QUESTION E-2664/03 by Terence Wynn (PSE) to the Commission. Manufactured products from third countries.
Date: 2003-09-10
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: corporate social responsibility, environmental standard, import policy, job cuts, labour standard, manufactured goods, national sovereignty, processing industry, safety standard, third country

C 88 E/108

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

8.4.2004

Commission has gained in assisting Acceding States to prepare for accession wherever applicable. It reflects
the Commission’s view that, in return for concrete progress demonstrating shared values and effective
implementation of political, economic and institutional reforms, all these neighbouring countries should be
offered the prospect of a stake in the Union’s internal market, as well as other advanced forms of
co-operation in key fields of mutual interest.

The countries concerned have been informed through diplomatic channels.

(1) COM(2003) 104 final.

(2004/C 88 E/0113)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2664/03

by Terence Wynn (PSE) to the Commission

(10 September 2003)

Subject: Manufactured products from third countries

The answer to the question E-1795/03 (1) misses the point. Let me give an example. If an industrial casting
is manufactured in China for sale in the EU, the Chinese manufacturers do not have to comply with the
laws that EU manufacturers have to. Employees can work in
same health, safety and environmental
conditions that would not be acceptable in the EU and emissions in the atmosphere would also not be
acceptable. Yet these products are marketed in the EU and EU products cannot compete because of EU
legislation demands.

Let me now repeat E-1795/03:

Why does the Commission allow manufactured products to enter the EU from third countries that do
not meet minimum health, safety and environmental standards that EU companies have to comply
with? Would the Commission agree that by allowing such products into the EU, the direct result is the
loss of European manufacturing jobs?

(1) OJ C 78 E, 27.3.2004, p. 725.

Answer given by Mr Lamy on behalf of the Commission

(7 November 2003)

The original reply to Written Question E-1795/03 by the Honourable Member alluded to the efforts that
were being made to promote Europe’s regulatory approach in third countries.

It is important to differentiate between mandatory product requirements based on legitimate policy
objectives, like the protection of the environment or health and safety, and applied by the Community on
domestic and alike foreign products and concerns related to the methods in which imported goods are
produced.

The Community can set legitimate product requirements, provided that complies with its international
obligations. In other words, the Community is not at liberty to impose safety and environmental laws on
countries outside its jurisdiction,
liberty to impose their own
requirements in the territory of the Community. This is not only a fundamental principle of sovereignty
and fully in line with the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, notably principles 2,
11 and 12, but also one of the basic principles of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.

just as those countries are not at

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Official Journal of the European Union

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The Community is, however, seeking to promote the respect of higher standards in developing countries;
for instance:

(cid:1) developing countries that abide by higher social or environmental standards may be granted

preferential access to the Community market through the Generalised System of Preference;

(cid:1) developed countries dialogue with companies in order to encourage them to behave in a socially and
environmentally more responsible manner in developing countries (for instance, the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development
set up Corporate Social Responsibility
(OECD) has
Guidelines);

(cid:1) the Commission’s development assistance policy is supporting developing countries wishing to set up

and implement new and stricter standards;

(cid:1) the Union is also exploring with its WTO partners ways to improve the linkages between trade and

environment.

It is noteworthy in this context that research shows that environmental standards tend to rise with the
level of development. Therefore the best thing that the Union can do to encourage the take up of higher
standards in its partners is to encourage economic development and growth. Blocking imports from
developing countries would have quite the opposite effect, locking them into poverty and further delaying
their move up the regulatory ladder.

The Commission is aware of the argument that allowing such imports might cause the loss of European
manufacturing jobs. This is al old argument which has been largely disproved by events.

The Commission considers that the following elements should be taken into account when assessing this
argument:

(cid:1) It is a hypothetical proposition, depending on hypothesis that the Community might renege on its
WTO obligations and turn its back on the benefits of multilateral trade agreements. The hypothetical
‘loss’ has to be netted off against the rather less hypothetical gain of manufacturing jobs achieved over
decades of trade liberalisation;

(cid:1) Trade liberalisation allows countries to specialise in those sectors in which they are most competitive

enabling all players to gain from increased productivity;

(cid:1) In the course of the natural upgrading of the Union economy it has moved away from the sort of
labour intensive manufactures in which developing countries specialise and now has an economic
structure based on services. The extent to which Union job holders compete with low cost imports is
therefore very limited;

(cid:1) Environmental and social awareness among European consumers implies that Community manu-
facturers can draw advantage from the global market for products conforming to high standards.
For example serving highly discriminating consumers has helped to make Union industry highly
competitive in environmentally friendly goods and technologies that protect the environment.

(2004/C 88 E/0114)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2703/03

by Luigi Vinci (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(11 September 2003)

Subject: The sociologist Mehmet Bercet and the head of the Goc-Der refugee organisation, Sefika Gurbuz,

on trial in Turkey for inciting racial hatred

Following the forced migration of hundreds of thousands of Kurds from the south-east of Turkey to the
outskirts of that country’s major cities, and in particular Istanbul, the sociologist Mehmet Bercet, himself an
ethnic Kurd, launched a study in association with the Istanbul-based refugee organisation Goc-Der to assess
the difficult living conditions and oppression endured by those people, who have been compelled to flee