In general, the pressure from, or the intention of, the European Union is for its trading partners to conform to its standards. The reason is very simple. As a member of the European Parliament elected in Spain, I have seen this problem elsewhere. For example, it makes no sense to establish consumer protection standards for domestic production within the European Union and then allow products with lower standards to enter the European market.
Let me give you a very specific example of the chemicals used in dying clothes. Within the European Union, the standards used to determine which products can be applied to clothes and sold are very high. Our consumer protection standards for chemical products are, generally speaking, very high. But then, we got the impression, and at times even more than the impression, that the European Commission was allowing textile products from China into the European market with lower standards. European industries could neither produce for, nor sell to, European consumers while the Chinese could. That made no sense.
We must not confuse multilateralism, which tries to set these kinds of standards so that they are as broad as possible, with protectionism. In general, we tend—and I think this is what we try to make clear in Parliament as much as possible, even though it may not always seem like it—to make sure that our standards are the same as those applied to products that come into the European market. But, of course, that is not always so clear when other products or other matters are involved.