Speaker: Kathleen VAN BREMPT (Belgium — Vooruit)
Political group: Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament
Date: 2021-07-05
Debate: Trade-related aspects and implications of COVID-19 (short presentation)

  Kathleen Van Brempt, rapporteur. – Madam President, when the world recovered in the last century from two world wars it became clear that international trade policy would become the centre of recovery and it brought us a full century of prosperity. Today, we are recovering from a pandemic and are heading towards the same direction, putting trade at the centre of recovery. But we have to take care that we do it in a different way, that we make sure that the 21st century recovery and stability put sustainability at the centre, and that is why European trade policy should change.
With this pandemic, we saw the face of biodiversity degradation and what will increasingly happen if we do not make sure that our economy becomes climate neutral. Our global actions cannot be limited to statements and non-binding commitments on big conferences. International trade policy in Europe needs to walk the talk of the Green Deal. This means for instance that we need to bring an end to fossil fuels, that green goods need to receive preferential treatment over brown goods and it means that the trade and sustainable development (TSD) chapters become really sanction-based.
During the crisis we also saw the decline of multilateralism. While our healthcare workers around the world had to combat a dangerous virus, governments struggled to buy personal protective equipment and basic medicines. Prices surged and there was no transparency on available stocks and production capacity. Weakened already by the Trump Presidency, the World Trade Organization and the World Health Organization struggled to come up with real answers and instead national responses took over, with dramatic export bans and disrupted supply chains.
Next time when the world faces a new pandemic, cooperation should be the first answer, not the last one, with strong international bodies to take on leadership. In this report, the European Parliament asks for strong support for an international pandemic treaty with a real and very robust trade pillar. We ask to establish a trade and health committee in the Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12). 
More than ever, we also faced global inequalities. While the West was in lockdown, workers in the East were working around the clock to make our face masks – unprotected and with hunger wages for their services to the world. And while the economic figures are arriving in Europe, we see that women in Africa are struggling to make a living in their micro-businesses, with debt and inflation just around the corner. That’s why we need mandatory due diligence across the supply chain, and fair and ethical trade schemes.
While the EU is a producer of the most vaccines in the world and an exporter, we see that the bulk of these productions go to G20 countries. Europe’s global vaccination strategy is not guided by political leadership, but by companies. At a time of crisis the rest of the world needs to know that they can count on Europe. 
This is a staunch warning not to isolate ourselves in the current discussion on intellectual property rights. Go and set yourselves at the right side of history. Of course at the same time we need to be assertive towards countries which undermine human rights and rule-based trade and democracy. A ban on products made with forced labour, an upgraded trade defence toolbox, effective sanction mechanisms on human rights need to be in place before the European Parliament even can think of starting the ratification of the investment agreement with China. 
Dear colleagues, trade policy is the most powerful and the most important tool the EU has on the international stage. It is the lever which can unlock the Green Deal and Europe’s industrial strategy for a climate-neutral continent. It is the key to unlocking the economic potential of developing partners and bringing stability to our neighbourhoods. It is the vehicle with which Europe can forge alliances and use its economic power to tackle global changes and global challenges such as pandemics. We need to do that together.