Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-11-22-Speech-4-073-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20121122.9.4-073-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, China poses the biggest challenge to European Union trade policy. I am quoting the Directorate-General for Trade. China has quickly become the world’s second largest economy and biggest exporter in the global economy. It therefore offers huge opportunities, but also significant challenges to the European economy. In just two decades we have gone from a situation where our commercial ties were virtually non-existent to the current situation of forming the second largest economic partnership in the world.
Fourth, what is the Commission’s assessment of the situation of the photovoltaic sector and of the polysilicon exporting sector in the European Union? Does it think increased imports from China could injure industry in the European Union?
Fifth, can the Commission explain how it intends to adapt the instruments at its disposal to an EU-wide strategy to develop the renewable energy sector and European Union exports in this sector?
Lastly, moreover, how does the Commission intend to develop a common industrial strategy with Member States in order to maintain the competitiveness of the European Union?
These are the questions that my committee approved. These are the questions on which I await an answer from the European Commission.
Our businesses can take advantage of the incredible business opportunities offered by the growing Chinese market. However, access to this market continues to be difficult in many ways, even though it has improved in recent years. Foreign businesses face a series of commercial barriers in China, which do not exist in the European Union. Conversely, Chinese exporters have benefited hugely from the European Union’s open market. The successful Chinese penetration is particularly due to low prices. At times the prices are abnormally low, which cannot be explained solely by equally low wages and environmental standards in China.
The state subsidisation of exporting industries, extensive infringement of industrial property rights and dumping are surely part of the explanation, as apparent from the report adopted in this Parliament last May entitled ‘EU and China: Unbalanced Trade?’ Obviously, that report by Marielle de Sarnez answered that question with a ‘yes’.
Both the European Union and China clearly have much to gain from intensifying their trade relations, provided that this occurs in accordance with the rules of the game, under conditions of fair trade and reciprocal treatment. However, concerns about China’s less fair trade practices have been on the increase and have resulted in the European Union adopting anti-dumping measures, as recently happened in the ceramics sector.
Yet the issue of abnormally low prices does not exist solely in those sectors regarded as traditional. On the contrary, the devastating Chinese competition is also affecting some of the European Union’s most innovative industries, including the solar panel industry, which has seen a huge rise in imports of Chinese products, leading to serious concerns about the economic sustainability of that European industry.
On that basis, the Committee on International Trade, which I chair, decided to ask an oral question about China, which it is my job to convey to this House and to the Commission. I must therefore ask, on behalf of the Committee on International Trade:
First, is the EU prepared to respond in an appropriate and timely fashion to these concerns?
Second, can the Commission confirm that the number of cases of imports from China being sold at abnormally low prices is increasing? Which cases have been brought to the Commission’s attention?
Third, the European Union and the United States are the main markets for photovoltaic applications due to public support schemes for renewable energies. Is it likely that United States anti-dumping measures will have consequences for the European Union market, that is through a diversion of exports to the European Union? Can the Commission provide statistics on the mutual ownership of companies based respectively in the European Union, the United States and China in the solar sector?"@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples