With shipping accounting for 76% of the EU’s external trade, the value of shipping to the European economy cannot be underestimated. This was the message of European shipowners with respect to the launch of the European Commission’s Trade Policy Review, last week, setting a new course for a stronger EU role globally.
EU shipowners control almost 40% of the global shipping tonnage, connecting industries and consumers and ensuring supplies around the world and within the EU. With European shipping being so crucial to the success of the new trade strategy, ECSA looks forward to engage with regulators in the implementation of this strategy in view of fostering the competitiveness of the sector and ultimately the economic recovery of Europe,
…said Martin Dorsman, ECSA’s Secretary-General.
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As economies and industries bounce back from the pandemic, this new strategy provides further impetus to restore an open, fair and sustainable global trading system, ECSA further noted and expressed its support of the strategy’s priority to reform the WTO to ensure it remains the core forum to negotiate further trade liberalisation and resolve disputes.
Maritime transport services are the enabler of world trade and although the sector enjoys a high degree of liberalisation, further protectionism cannot be ruled out. Shipping companies need to freely and commercially contract and carry goods or perform various shipping services around the world without local discrimination or restrictions.
In addition, ECSA said it supports the EU’s renewed focus on the implementation and enforcement of EU trade agreements. By anchoring clear commitments on maritime transport in legally binding instruments, the EU creates the certainty that EU shipping companies need to seize new opportunities.
We encourage the EU to keep being ambitious when negotiating new principles about shipping in trade agreements, being open to new developments and growing segments in the industry and around the world,
…Mr Dorsman added.
A new report by ICS, ‘Protectionism in Maritime Economies’, found that reducing trade protectionism could see GDP gains for national economies increase by up to 3.4%.
It is therefore crucial that the maritime sector is placed at the centre of the EU’s trade policy. ECSA calls on regulators to closely involve the shipping industry in these discussions going forward.
