Bruselas,
Bélgica, 17 de octubre del 2012.- En el discurso
que pronunció ante el Parlamento Europeo el 17 de octubre de 2012, el Director
General, Pascal Lamy, dijo que “para la recuperación económica duradera de
Europa, es fundamental afianzar vínculos abiertos y transparentes con los
nuevos polos de crecimiento mundial”. Añadió que “la apertura del comercio
ofrece a Europa un instrumento eficaz para promover reformas que impulsen el
crecimiento a través de la innovación y una mayor productividad”. El Director
General dijo lo siguiente:
“El comercio, motor del crecimiento y el
empleo”
Ladies and
Gentlemen
Dear
friends
It is a
pleasure for me to be at this conference organised by the EU40. You represent
the voices of the young generation in the European Parliament. These voices are
crucial in the current European debate. They are also crucial to the debate
about globalisation and trade, its benefits and its challenges.
The topic you
have chosen is timely. Europe is facing
a massive challenge; how to ensure its citizens remain on board for the much
needed structural reforms, while restoring growth and creating jobs. In other
words, how can Europe combine reforms and growth and ensure solidarity and
austerity. For one thing is sure:
European citizens will not support reforms unless they see a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of
jobs.
You have
chosen the theme of trade as an engine for growth, and I cannot but support your
choice.
In 2012,
the contribution of trade to European GDP should enable the EU economy to avoid
falling back into recession despite weak domestic demand. And the contribution of exports to growth
will only increase in future, as 90% of global economic growth by 2015 is
expected to be generated outside Europe, a third of it in China alone.
Today, more
than 30 million jobs in Europe – around 10% of European workforce, depend on
European sales to the rest of the world. This is an increase of 50% compared to
twenty years ago.
Furthermore,
the import content of EU exports has increased by more than 60% in the last
twenty years to reach 13 %. There are European jobs linked to these imports
too. While the import content has risen
sharply it remains much lower than the world average of 40%. What does this mean? It means that the domestic added value
content of European exports is higher than the world averageand that the job
content of Europe's exports is high.
Hence the crucial importance of international trade to reduce
unemployment at a cost it should be acknowledged, of higher qualifications for
these jobs.
There is
very little I need to add to make the case for trade in the European Union. The
figures speak for themselves.
Consolidating
open and transparent links with the world's new centres of growth is essential
to Europe's sustainable economic recovery.
Trade opening offers Europe an effective tool to promote pro-growth
reforms through innovation and stronger productivity.
Let me
briefly mention three shaping factors that are crucial for a successful trade
policy in today's world.
The first
the importance of participation in
global value chains. Second is the rise in importance of non-tariff
measures and third the vital importance of services to modern
economies.
We have
moved from trade in products to trading in tasks. These tasks are spread across
countries and often across continents along value chains. In global production
chains, imports matter as much as exports. It also means that obstacles to trade
in the form of burdensome customs procedures have a disproportionate impact on
the ability of countries to trade. It hampers their competitiveness. This is
why it makes eminent sense to conclude the on-going WTO negotiations on trade
facilitation. Such an agreement would reduce the costs of customs procedures
from current 10% of the value of trade, which was $18 trillion in 2011, to 5%.
The second
shaping factor of trade today is the rise in importance of non-tariff measures.
Such measures can encompass a very broad
range of policies –most of them aimed at
serving specific public policy objectives, such as health, safety or the
quality of the environment. While
legitimate and indeed necessary, the question is how these measures are
designed and how they are implemented.
The danger from a trade policy perspective is that they may be designed
or implemented in ways that unjustifiably restrict trade.
The proper
management of non-tariff measures is among the greatest challenges we face in
international cooperation. Levelling the
playing field in this area raises challenges of a different nature to those
related to tariffs. The proliferation of preferential trade agreements with
divergent approaches to public policies may result in non-tariff measures constituting
serious obstacles to trade. This possibility of incidental divergence
strengthens the case for multilateral coherence.
The third
shaping factor is the growing importance of services for our economies, and in
particular developing countries. This calls for a new global consensus to open
services trade and to secure this opening in a set of global rules. Again,
given the proliferation of global value chains, it is through multilateral
agreement that we can most effectively level the playing field.
I hope with
these short comments I have convinced you that there is a space for a robust
trade agenda in the mix of macroeconomic policies that countries have at their
disposal. I hope also to have convinced you of the importance of global trade
opening and rule-making as the best way to achieve balanced and sustainable
outcomes. Europe has a vital role to
play in building this trade agenda and the European Parliament can and should
contribute forcefully to this endeavour.
I count on
the EU 40 to lead the way. Thank you for your attention.
Fuente: OMC