A3-0373/93

Resolution on promoting fairness and solidarity in North-South trade

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the motion for a resolution by the following Members: van Putten, Verhagen, Ernst de la Graete, Bindi, Izquierdo Rojo, Langer, Mendes Bota, Caroline F. Jackson, Simons, Roth, Sandbæk, van Outrive, Cramon Daiber, Woltjer, Staes, Coates, Bettini, Wynn, Boissière, Valent, van Dijk, Lagakos, Iversen, Sakellariou, Bertens, Bandrés Molet, Schmidbauer, Telkämper and Melandri on promoting fair and ethical trade (B3-0026/93),

-having regard to its resolutions of 8 October 1991 on coffee consumption as a means of active support for small Third World coffee producers and the introduction of that coffee within the European institutions, and of 14 May 1992 on structural adjustment in the developing countries, on measures to promote and support private investment in developing countries and on the commercial impact of the single market on the developing countries,

-having regard to those resolutions of the ACP-EEC Joint Assembly promoting preferential relations between the Community and the ACP countries with regard to certain sectors such as sugar, bananas, cocoa, coffee and the like,

-having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Development and Cooperation (A3-0373/93),

A.whereas inequitable trade relations are to a significant extent responsible for the structural imbalance between North and South,

B.whereas a growing proportion of Community citizens are no longer prepared to tolerate this injustice and would also be willing to make certain sacrifices in order to correct it,

C.whereas there are already numerous non-profit-making organizations and international associations in Community and other European countries which seek to promote fair and non-exploitative North-South trade, and there are already hundreds of businesses and cooperatives in Europe and the South whose object is to produce and market products under more socially and environmentally acceptable conditions,

D.whereas in recent decades many development aid projects have not had the desired social and economic impact at all and have failed to curb unemployment, impoverishment, social and ecological damage, indebtedness and the like,

E.having regard to the proposals set out in the Fourth Annual Report 1993 of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which explicitly recommends building up community- and people-friendly forms of marketing,

F.in the conviction that the oft repeated slogan 'not aid but trade' must be acted upon by means of appropriate, practical measures if the indigenous subsistence economies of many regions in the South are not to be exposed unprotected to ruthless competition on intolerable terms and thus destroyed,

G.acknowledging the favourable results so far achieved by the various movements pressing for fairness and solidarity in trade relations and expressing the hope that appropriate measures adopted by the Community and the Member States can strengthen and expand this hitherto still very marginal market sector and that as a result a socially and environmentally acceptable sector of the market economy, with greater transparency and better relations between producers and consumers, can be further consolidated and developed,

H.convinced that fair and non-exploitative trade can, and should, be promoted at Community level through vocational training, further training, improvements to distribution networks, information campaigns and organizational improvements,

I.welcoming the decision of the ACP-EEC Joint Assembly on 4-8 October 1993 in Brussels to set up a joint working party on industrial development in ACP countries,

1.Regards the initiatives which already exist in many Community countries to promote fairness and solidarity in trade as an important pioneering achievement, and takes the view that, despite their as yet very modest dimensions, they deserve recognition and support on account of their exemplary character and should become a permanent element in socially and environmentally sound North-South cooperation;

2.Wishes such initiatives and organizations to be appropriately coordinated, taken into account and supported at EC level;

3.Recommends in particular that the Community and its Member States take measures to recognize and promote legally, financially and organizationally European coordination and joint representation of alternative trade organizations and support certain activities undertaken by these organizations (consumer information, training and further training of indigenous producers and experts on marketing in partner countries, information for those acting as market contacts etc.), allocating them a fair share of the resources of the European Development Fund;

4.Emphasizes that tax legislation in particular should take account of the particular conditions under which fair and non-exploitative North-South trade develops;

5.Recommends measures to help fair trade partners in the South to diversify their production and adapt to the production standards required by the EC;

6.Calls for fair trade partner organizations in the partner countries to be targeted for aid under the European Development Fund, pursuant to implementation of the Lomé Convention, and to be assisted in establishing local producer, marketing and consumer networks;

7.Recommends recognition and protection of a quality label certifying fair trade products which would pave the way for a certain measure of preferential treatment (with regard to levying of customs duties, import quotas etc.) for fair and non-exploitative trade;

8.Calls for the inclusion in the Community budget of a specific heading to this end and the establishment of a focal point at the Commission to improve fair trade marketing and information on this question;

9.Intends to devote particular attention to the problem of fairness and solidarity in trade in future, to take special account of fair trade products in its own procurements (as already decided in its above-mentioned resolution of 8 October 1991) and to have it discussed and promoted in its Committee on Development and Cooperation and at the ACP-EEC Joint Assembly;

10.Wishes the Community to take appropriate account of and support the promotion of fair trade in its legislation and budget, and call upon national legislatures to do the same;

11.Wishes the Community to incorporate fair trade as an integral element in its policy on development and cooperation and advocate measures in international fora designed to enable such more just and socially and ecologically more acceptable trade to develop positively;

12.Recommends therefore that, in the various international negotiations and agreements (including GATT), the Community champion the cause of fair conditions on the world market and give special backing to the interests and concerns of small producers in the partner countries (including their access to export or import quotas);

13.Calls for the Community to support the conclusion of fair international agreements on commodities and products from the countries of the South, such as coffee, cocoa, tea and bananas, with just and remunerative prices for producers;

14.Calls for unfair barriers to trade, such as escalation of tariffs, to be eliminated, and for small producers to receive appropriate protection against competition which they cannot survive, and calls for promotion of their competitiveness by means of training, credit and other support measures;

15.Recommends the Commission to have analyses and studies carried out on the possible introduction of fiscal measures, which might possibly promote the equalization not achieved by the market alone ('equitax') and make suitable proposals for action to Parliament and the Council within an appropriate time-span;

16.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the co-presidents of the ACP-EEC Joint Assembly and the UNDP Secretariat.