Additional chapter on trade?

[TheBug]

I was wondering if we should add a chapter on trade.

For external trade things like CETA and similar “free trade” agreements would be an issue. These agreements introduce a private parallel judicial system with the arbitration boards and they lower standards.

And internal trade in the common market is increasingly hampered by national regulations that are not harmonized. A current example is the regulation on packaging materials where many countries brew up their local systems that are hurdles especially for SMEs.

[Mab]

We have a fairly extensive chapter on International Trade as a subchapter under “International Affairs” in the 2019 CEEP. My suggestion would be that we keep it there for now, and let the people working on that chapter update the text. Then when we meet in Strasbourg in April, and we have a better overview of the entire 2024 CEEP we can discuss if it should be changed to be a chapter of its own, or stay a subchapter.

The 2019 text can be found here: https://european-pirateparty.eu/programme/international-affairs/ and it reads:

International Trade Policy

We reject multilateral international agreements that entrench dysfunctional monopolies and patents to the detriment of civil rights and human freedoms.

The Pirates require all trade agreements to respect the protection of personal data of consumers and firms.

Principles for Trade Agreements

Pirates stipulate that in all negotiations of the European Union on trade agreements the following conditions must be met:

• The European Parliament must ratify the treaty and the treaty must be negotiated upholding the principles listed below;

• There is comprehensive access to information and public hearings during the negotiating process;

• The proposed treaty includes respect for freedom of the Internet, social and civil rights, and sustainable development;

• The interests of small and medium-sized enterprises are taken into account.

Those conditions are expanded below.

PARTICIPATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Trade agreements contain political decisions that are important to society and difficult to change after their adoption. Therefore the European Parliament, the only body in the EU that has a direct democratic mandate, should have relevant position when dealing with trade policies.

The European Parliament should have access to all the negotiation material via its Committee on International Trade (INTA) and have the right to be an observer to negotiations, and the right to make binding remarks to the European Commission.

COMPREHENSIVE ACCESS TO INFORMATION AND PUBLIC HEARINGS

The Pirates are against secret negotiations. Documents concerning the negotiations of trade agreements should be made available to the European Parliament as well as to the public. We demand that all results of consultations must be published promptly and in full.

RESPECT FOR FREEDOM OF THE INTERNET, SOCIAL AND CIVIL RIGHTS, AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Pirates consider the people’s right to privacy and self-determination as self-evident. Therefore they also need to be respected and promoted in the context of trade agreements.

As these principles apply to all people, the EU has to make sure that trade agreements will not allow their trading partners to breach them.

All future European trade agreements should be based on the principle of sustainable development. The agreement cannot be ratified if it has a negative impact on the environment.

THE INTERESTS OF SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES MUST BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT

At the moment trade agreements mainly take into account the interests of global enterprises, while small and medium-sized companies rarely benefit; SMEs are increasingly ousted from the market. We want to change that.

The responsibility of international corporations

The European Union must make it possible to engage the legal responsibility of companies in the event of infringement of European environmental law for their actions on the territory of the Union but also for their actions outside the territory of the EU if in the latter case the seat of their parent company is in the territory of the European Union.

[Mab]

I just realized you suggested we should have one chapter for both trade inside the EU and International trade. The chapter in International affairs that I quoted above only cover the international trade aspect, and after looking around for a clear place for trade inside the EU I can’t really find one.

However, I am not sure that it is a good idea to put policies regarding international trade agreements in the same chapter as policies for the internal market. Rather I would suggest we find a place for a text about the Internal market specifically. It could either go under Finances, or as a separate chapter.