28
Apr
2026
Watch
Generalised scheme of tariff preferences (A9-0147/2022 - Bernd Lange) (vote)
Madam President, dear colleagues, we are here for the adoption of a compromise of a trilogue, which took time: four years. Now, we have a reasonable outcome, which is a clear signal to our partners worldwide that we are a reliable partner and we really want to give the poorest countries of the world access to our market, but not without any conditions. We made clear that they have to respect human rights, that they have to respect sustainability and some others. So, I guess this is a package which is helping the poorest countries and, on the other side, really secures our interest. And yes, the Rolling Stones, they are right. They have a famous song called 'You Can't Always Get What You Want'. That is right. So, it is a compromise, but we took on board the concerns specifically from the agricultural sector. We introduced for the first time in this scheme of general preference, a safeguard, which is a strong safeguard that will protect our rice farmers for a big volume coming from poor countries like Myanmar and Cambodia. So, if we now really reopen this result of the trilogue, it will really be a worse situation because it is a really fragile compromise. We will have no clear condition to the partner, the Global South will not have a predictable situation to us and we will have no safeguard on rice at all. Therefore, let's really be responsible and vote for the outcome of the trilogue.