Debate: Indo-Pacific strategy in the area of trade and investment
Date: MONDAY, 4 JULY 2022
Speaker: Helena Dalli
Language: EN

The EU’s strategic engagement in the Indo-Pacific is designed to promote respect for international law and access to open markets. This will entail a further deepening and diversification of our trade and investment ties and collaboration to help accelerate the green and digital transitions and spur innovation and connectivity. In today’s challenging, competitive and often turbulent geopolitical environment, it is essential that we strengthen trade and political links with the region. This has become even more relevant in view of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Therefore, it is vital to work closely with the region to reinforce and diversify value and supply chains, especially with a focus on technologies and raw materials, and to finalise ongoing trade negotiations. In this context, our general approach is the following: the EU so far has concluded ambitious and comprehensive trade agreements with Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Vietnam. Their implementation is making a clear difference, and they have led to a noticeable increase in bilateral trade flows. Negotiations for similarly ambitious agreements with other countries in the region are progressing. We notably sealed an agreement with New Zealand just last week, while negotiations with Australia are picking up pace. Talks with Indonesia may be concluded subsequently. With India, we resumed negotiations in June. The EU’s objective is to negotiate an ambitious and comprehensive trade agreement modelled on the most recent EU trade deals. This would notably include market access for goods, services and government procurement, digital trade, intellectual property rights, as well as ambitious provisions on trade and sustainable development. In parallel, negotiations would also aim at concluding separate agreements on investment protection and geographical indications. Turning to South-East Asia, we remain very committed to engaging with ASEAN, and we are moving forward with individual FTAs as building blocks for a future wider region-to-region engagement. We remain very interested in the possible resumption of trade negotiations with Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, once the conditions are right and with the eventual negotiation of a region-to-region trade agreement as a longer-term objective. In addition, I would like to highlight that our trade policy strategy also proposes alternatives to traditional trade agreements. The aim is, for instance, to prevent and diminish market access barriers by fostering more regulatory alignment through regulatory cooperation. In that context, and as your draft report rightly insists, we want to create a network of digital partnerships. A digital partnership with Japan was launched in May, and the partnerships with Korea and Singapore are planned to follow later this year. The economic and geopolitical importance of sustainable connectivity and the digital economy is one of the priorities defined in the Indo-Pacific strategy, and the EU is now actively committed to translating it into concrete action. In the area of connectivity, the EU will aim to promote all dimensions of connectivity with Indo-Pacific partners in a strategic manner, building on the global gateway strategy. Furthermore, with the new connectivity strategy launched on the 1 December 2021, the EU is stepping up its offer to help partners around the world meet their needs in increasing investment in both hard and soft infrastructure and beyond, thereby promoting democratic values, human rights and high standards such as good governance and transparency. On Taiwan, I would like to highlight that we have worked with our Taiwanese counterparts to modernise EU-Taiwan trade and investment engagement and expand our discussions to strategic topics linked to trade and security. The resulting EU-Taiwan Trade and Investment Dialogue took place for the first time on the 2 June, co-chaired by the Director-General of DG Trade and the Taiwanese Minister of Economic Affairs. At the dialogue, the EU and Taiwan agreed to work together on the monitoring of supply chains for semiconductors, and we agreed to deepen cooperation on export controls, FDI screening, while working towards solutions to market access concerns. The Commission welcomes this report and we believe that EU involvement in the Indo-Pacific region has become more relevant than ever, not only to advance our interests, but also to promote the rules-based international order and promote global standards on sustainable development. The Commission looks forward to working together with the European Parliament on this very important agenda.