Trade in the Rail Transport Sector
With a global market share of more than 50% of the worldwide production of rail equipment and services, the European rail industry has established itself as a worldwide leader and has a long history as an exporting industry.
In this respect, the opening of new opportunities for rail in several regions of the world – such as the American rail renaissance or the building of major rail networks in the Middle East or China – are viewed as key opportunities for UNIFE member companies.
At the same time, the European rail industry increasingly meets competition from foreign suppliers on the European market. Whilst the European industry is fully prepared to face the competition and is in favour of liberalising of global trade, it would expect third countries to equally open their markets to European suppliers in return.
A typical example of non-reciprocal trade relations in the field of the rail industry is provided by the Japanese example. Whilst rail transport-related tenders in Europe are largely open to Japanese companies, the Japanese market remains completely inaccessible to European railway systems suppliers. Despite the existing WTO Agreement on Public Procurement (GPA), under which EU countries have opened their rail market to Japanese bidders, foreign bidders only won an estimated 0.25% of the Japanese Rolling Stock market – a share which is explained by the brutal exclusion of foreign bidders from the Japanese market.
UNIFE believes that such situation is completely unacceptable, at a time Japanese companies are winning major orders in Europe, where they benefit from a deregulated and open environment.
In the same idea, UNIFE seeks to further open third countries’ markets to European producers, and is therefore involved in discussions on Free Trade Agreements and various topics surrounding the issue of barriers to trade.
For more information, please contact:
Emmanuel Brutin
Public Affairs Manager
+32 2 626 12 68
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