The first common public event of CEMA and CECE, its sister association for construction equipment, has been attended by more than 300 participants from industry and European institutions. By this it fulfilled excellently both targets: To show that the two industry sectors have a common strong voice in Brussels and to provide a platform for industry internal networking.
The highlight of the public event was the keynote speech by David O’Sullivan, Director General in charge of Trade within the European Commission. Mr. O’Sullivan explained that the economic crisis did not trigger a strong trend to tariff protectionism – also thanks to a strong European position. However, some countries like Russia, a non-member of WTO, or Argentina and Indonesia did protect their markets from foreign goods as a reaction to the crisis. The Director General was not optimistic, that Russia in the nearer future would join WTO.
Carlo Lambro from New Holland presented the industry viewpoint on the trade challenges. He reminded the representatives of the European institutions on the important role they play by ensuring fair rules for a global competition. He pointed out, that while in most other parts of the world the requirements regarding safety and environmental aspects are lower than in the EU, many countries nevertheless require separate testing and certification of European products instead of accepting the high standards. Trade policy should ensure a better recognition of European legislation and standards.
In a panel discussion Peter Klein, Director within the European Commission’s DG Trade in charge of industry relations, showed strong interest in the drafts of CECE’s new brochures on how to identify construction equipment which does not comply with European legislation. He offered the support of the European Commission in the fight against unfair competition from outside of Europe.
In a second panel Dr. Tim Leverton, Group Engineering Director of JCB, outlined the gap between the target of designing a safe and environmentally acceptable product that can be sold around the world and the reality defined by diverging legal requirements. Mrs Alexandra Jour-Schroeder, the Head of Unit responsible for machinery within European Commission’s DG Enterprise, took note of the many inconsistencies in legislation and promised to consider seriously a new attempt to harmonize road safety requirements for mobile machines in Europe.
