Quote of the Week: Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward.
They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game. - Goethe
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ESBA WEEKLY of Friday 18 May 2001 - VOL 3 - N° 24
Headlines of WEEK 20
- TRADE: Trade facilitation: a priority on the WTO agenda
- TRADE: EC discusses trade issues with CEECs and LDCs
- INDUSTRY: Mixed Industry Council conclusions
- ENVIRONMENT: Proposal for EU strategy on Sustainable Development
- SINGLE MARKET: The fifth SLIM round explained
- E-COMMERCE: GoDigital grants launched
- UPCOMING EVENTS
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EU / TRADE
Geneva 10&11/05/2001: Trade facilitation: a priority on the WTO agenda
The WTO recently organised a workshop on technical assistance and capacity
building in trade facilitation to explore and analyse work on the
simplification of trade procedures in order to assess the scope for WTO
rules in this area. The workshop indicates the importance of addressing
non-tariff barriers to global trade.
It allowed intergovernmental organisations, donor members, recipient
members and the private sector (no SMEs organisations represented) the
ability to take stock of the nature and scope of past and current
programmes, to ascertain areas of expertise of the various providers of
technical assistance, and to develop a better understanding of the needs
of recipients. Such information may be a valuable basis to develop a more
cooperative and coordinated approach in the future, hopefully leading to
the inclusion of trade facilitation as a priority on the agenda of a
possible new WTO negotiation at the end of this year.
ESBA IS ABOUT TO FINALISE A POSITION PAPER ON THIS MATTER AND WILL SEND IT
IN THE NEAR FUTURE TO THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION AND THE WTO IN GENEVA (SEE
ESBA WEEKLY - VOL 3 - N 19).
More info (copy/paste full link):
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tradfa_e/tradfac_workshop_may01_e.htm
http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/spmm_e/spmm62_e.htm
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EU / TRADE
Ljubljana-Brussels 12/05/2001: EC & trade issues with CEECs and LDCs
After the EU Candidate Countries Conference on WTO and Trade Issues
Ministers issued a Joint Declaration in support of the launch of a new WTO
Round at the forthcoming WTO Ministerial meeting in Qatar in November this
year. The round should lead to the improvement and reinforcement of
existing WTO rules and disciplines in such areas as anti-dumping,
clarification of the relationship between trade and the environment, as
well as the establishment of rules in new areas such as investment,
competition, trade facilitation and transparency in government
procurement. Furthermore, it must be directed at strengthening access to
markets, at developing and strengthening the rules and disciplines of the
WTO and at promoting a better integration of developing countries into the
Multilateral Trading System.
The declaration has been put in practice directly during the UN-Least
Developed Countries (LDC) conference in Brussels, where a new package of
trade measures, designed to help integrate the LDC's into the global
economy, was presented by the European Commission. The plans come on top
of the EU's decision to open its market completely to LDC exports through
its 'Everything But Arms' initiative, agreed upon earlier this year (see
ESBA WEEKLY - Vol 3 - N 13). Measures consist of technical assistance,
capacity building, investment promotion, and the promotion of rapid
accession of LDCs to the WTO (based on a recent agreement between the EU,
US, Japan and Canada). The EU has also called upon all developed countries
to follow its lead in refraining from the use of anti-dumping measures
against LDCs. Also during this conference the importance of the launch of
a new WTO was stressed by the EU. However, there is still a considerable
reticence and mitigation on the side of LDCs (e.g. demands for regulatory
mechanisms to master trade liberalisation).
Although there is still a lot or work to be done, WTO Director-General
Mike Moore praised all efforts by ministers to narrow their differences
and work toward ensuring a successful outcome to the WTO Ministerial
Conference in Doha. Mr. Moore told ministers at several conferences he
visited this week that he would issue them a progress report on the Doha
preparations at the end of July. He stressed that this report would not
represent a deadline but would be a reality check.
More info on Ljubljana declaration:
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/trade/whats_new/enlarg1.htm
More info on trade issues related to LDCs (copy/paste full link):
http://www.europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&do
c=IP/01/714|0|RAPID&lg=EN
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EU / INDUSTRY
Brussels 14&15/05/2001: Mixed Industry Council conclusions
As reported already in last weeks' ESBA bulletin, the agenda of the
Industry Council included several key issues for SMEs. The following
conclusions can be drawn:
- Whereas Commissioner Liikanen underlined the key policy areas where
quantitative targets should be used (e.g. regulatory and administrative
environment, the smooth functioning of the Internal Market,
entrepreneurship, spreading innovation, access to new technology, access
to finance and human capital), the Council itself made was no reference to
quantitative enterprise policy targets
- The Council issued conclusions on the important role of and the links
between SMEs, entrepreneurship, ICT and e-business, mainly referring to
the recently launched GoDigital initiative, stressing the special needs
and difficulties encountered by SMEs when exploiting the opportunities
offered by ICT and e-business.
- On the integration of the sustainable development concept into
enterprise policy, the Council underlined that while the Member States are
committed to integrate sustainable development in enterprise policy (by
means of a strategy including objectives, a timetable for further measures
and a set of indicators), one should take into account the special needs
and difficulties of SMEs when measures and policies are developed, and
that the dialogue with industry and other stakeholders should be
reinforced on all levels on the use, development and improvement of
appropriate market-based as well as voluntary approaches and by promoting
and co-ordinating the exchange of experience and best practice at national
level.
- Finally, the conclusions following the debate on the Chemicals White
Paper (the Environment and Internal Market Council already discussed the
matter earlier) indicated that a large number of Member States welcomed
the White Paper, but that some important aspects will have be taken into
account when implementing the strategy, such as: the need to take into
account the interests of SMEs, cost-effectiveness and flexibility as to
registration and approval of chemicals, the need to ensure a balanced
burden-sharing between the upstream and downstream chemical industry, and
a smooth adaptation of the strategy into the Internal Market and
international trade.
More info (copy/paste full link), at around 60% of the link:
http://ue.eu.int/Newsroom/LoadDoc.cfm?MAX=1&DOC=!!!&BID=91&DID=66455&GRP=3
462&LANG=1
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EU / ENVIRONMENT
Brussels 16/05/2001: Proposal for EU strategy on Sustainable Development
Further to the initial consultation paper (see ESBA WEEKLY - Vol 3 - N
17), the Commission has adopted its proposal for a EU strategy for
Sustainable Development, to be adopted by the next European Council on
15&16 June in Gothenburg. Sustainable Development should link and
integrate the economic, social and environmental objectives of societies
in a balanced way with a long term perspective, whereby actively
involvement (via dialogue with all stakeholders) and effective
implementation (measured via performance indicators) is of crucial
importance to the success of the strategy.
As foreseen, the proposal contains specific objectives and measures, to
tackle the biggest challenges to Sustainable Development not dealt with in
the Lisbon strategy already, in the field of climate change (including a
new framework for energy taxation), public health, transport systems, and
biodiversity.
At the same time the OECD Council Meeting at Ministerial Level adopted a
final communique named "towards a sustainable future". Whereas the EC
proposal for a Sustainable Development strategy and its proposed measures
and objectives should be seen as complementary to and in relation with the
Lisbon strategy already underway, the OECD communique presents a complete
overarching approach to reach Sustainable Development by integrating
economic, environmental and social objectives.
Finally, the OECD Environment Ministers (whom met also at the same time)
also adopted an Environmental Strategy for the Next Decade (non-binding),
committing themselves to specific national actions over the next ten years
to tackle the worst environmental problems, including climate change, in
order to work together towards environmental sustainability. The presented
US energy plans on 17 May seem rather controversial in relation to the
adopted OECD Environmental Strategy and chooses in any case radical
different options compared to the EU's Green Paper on energy supply.
The EC proposal on Sustainable Development can be found at:
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/environment/eussd/index.htm
OECD: Towards a sustainable future:
http://www.oecd.org/media/release/nw01-48a.htm
See also (copy/paste full link):
http://www.europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&do
c=MEMO/01/184|0|RAPID&lg=EN
OECD: Environmental Strategy for the First Decade of the 21st Century:
http://www.oecd.org/media/release/nw01-46a.htm
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EU / SINGLE MARKET
Brussels 17/05/2001: The fifth SLIM round explained
Further to the launch of the fifth SLIM round itself (see ESBA WEEKLY -
Vol 3 - N 22), the Commission now also has come up with a website where
procedures and guidelines are explained and where work in progress on
specific legislation can be followed up-to-date:
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/update/slim/5phase.htm
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EU / E-COMMERCE
Brussels 17/05/2001: GoDigital grants launched
DG Enterprise of the European Commission has published a grant theme for
the follow-up of the GoDigital initiative (see ESBA WEEKLY - Vol 3 - N
15). The objective of this grant theme is to organise European, national
and regional GoDigital conferences and workshops to promote the efficient
use of e-business by SMEs and provide practical assistance to SMEs.
More info:
http://www.europa.eu.int/ISPO/ecommerce/godigital/opportunities.html
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Brussels (B) 28/05/2001: Politics and Instruments for the competitiveness
of European Business; Theme: Enterprise policy, competition, SMEs.
Info: http://www.sme-union.org/activities/unioncamare.htm
Brussels (B) 29/05/2001: Make it simple!; Theme: Enterprise Policy, SMEs,
regulations. Info: http://www.unice.org
Brussels (B) 30/05/2001: Bureau meeting of the SME-Union on the political
priorities and future activities for SMEs in 2001/2002.
Info: http://www.sme-union.org/activities/congressPriorities.htm
Lisbon (P) 18&19/06/2001: New strategies for improved health in SME, role
of social partners, policy developments and creating supportive
environments; Theme: Health, competitiveness.
Info: http://www.bkk.de/gesundheit/health_at_work
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The ESBA Weekly is now sent to an increasing amount of persons with a
direct interest in SMEs.
This bulletin is made in cooperation with LOGOS (http://www.logos-eu.com).
