The EU must realise how to make trade greener and more sustainable – EURACTIV.com
The trade and sustainable development (TSD) chapters must be a cornerstone of our free trade agreements and the EU must be able to ensure and monitor their effective implementation, write Marie-Pierre Vedrenne and Samira Rafaela.
Renewed MEP Marie-Pierre Vedrenne is Vice-Chair of the Committee on International Trade. MEP Samira Rafaela is Renew Europe Coordinator in the Committee on International Trade
After Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine, war has returned to the European continent. Meanwhile, climate change continues to wreak havoc on our planet with an increase in natural disasters.
In recent weeks we have witnessed colossal heat waves around the world, massive floods in Pakistan and terrible forest fires in the European Union. Human rights are still being violated in every corner of the world, as illustrated by the unspeakable treatment of China’s Uyghur community.
Faced with all these challenges, we might give up. We can. However, we, Renew Europe, will not do this.
As the European Parliament is about to adopt a resolution on trade and sustainable development, we, Renew Europe, would like to stress that work should be seen as one of the measures to tackle all of this. Trade has become a tool to accelerate green and digital transitions, promote human and labor rights and gender equality, and fight climate change. Above all, our trade policy is an important geopolitical and geoeconomic lever.
The current dynamic within the EU is positive. In this unstable world, we must continue to fight for multilateral responses within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO), for example to achieve CO2 neutrality.
We must strengthen our trade relations with democracies and lead by example by implementing reformed and strong Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) chapters, particularly in our forthcoming agreements with New Zealand. We must enforce ambitious rules against human rights abuses, such as B. the prohibition of forced labor products on the internal market or the introduction of due diligence laws.
Renew Europe supports ambitious trade. But only if it is traded fairly and all our trading partners respect the rules. We therefore welcome the Commission’s proposal to use trade sanctions as a last resort against trading partners guilty of serious breaches of trade and sustainable development commitments such as the Paris Agreement or International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions. It was a longstanding call from our European Parliament and our group. Finally, the EU takes full stock of its ability to change the world for the better.
In fact, the EU is powerful. We have to keep that in mind. As the world’s largest trading bloc, we have all the tools in hand to address today’s challenges by setting high standards. The EU brings together 450 million citizens who are also consumers with high expectations and an awareness of the need for more sustainable consumption. Our market is valuable for our trading partners. Therefore, we should not be afraid to use this fact as leverage to enforce high environmental, labor and human rights standards.
We, as Europeans, should be at the forefront of global cooperation to improve compliance with our international environmental and labor legislation. For this reason, the Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) chapters must be a cornerstone of our free trade agreements and the EU must be able to ensure and monitor their effective implementation.
Tell us, those who are calling for less trade instead of more sustainable trade, how you intend to ensure transformative change among our partners.
The EU must continue on this path for greener and more sustainable trade for the benefit of businesses, citizens and our planet.