1.
COMMISSION AGREE A MORE FLEXIBLE EBA PROPOSAL?
Following
this week’s meeting of the College of EU Commissioners, EU
Commissioner for Trade, Pascal Lamy has been given the mandate to
discuss a more flexible proposal for the Everything But Arms
initiative with EU Ministers. The Everything But Arms (EBA)
initiative proposed by the European Commission three months ago
calls for all Least Developed Countries to be granted immediate
duty and quota free access to all their products, except arms,
with a three-year derogation for banana, rice and sugar. The
Commission met this week to discus how to make the EBA initiative
more attractive to some agriculture producers’ organisations
in the EU and some EU Member States (Germany, Austria and the
Mediterranean countries) who have voiced opposition or
reservations to the initiative. Opponents of the proposal claim
that it would disrupt EU markets by flooding them with the
abovementioned products from LDCs. However a number of studies
have pointed out that Least Developed Countries are far from
being in a position to flood EU markets with their products, due
to their tiny share of the EU market and the supply side
constraints they face.
The
College of Commissioners agreed this week that Pascal Lamy, the
EU Commissioner for Trade, should defend and push the original
EBA proposal with EU governments in the EU Council. However, a
degree of flexibility was deemed necessary to negotiate the
proposal with the EU Council. This flexibility would be to
postpone the liberalisation of exports of rice and sugar until
2008 (gradual liberalisation beginning in 2006), and the
liberalisation of bananas in 2006. According to an official from
Mr Lamy’s office, the main practical reasons for agreeing to
the flexibility on transition periods is because the
Commission’s Directorate General for Agriculture does not
have the budget (under the Common Agricultural Policy) to support
any losses incurred through the proposal's implementation.
Speaking
at the European Parliament’s Development Committee, Mr Lamy
stated that there are no serious threats of inflow of LDC
products into the EU market. Taking sugar as an example he
pointed out that LDCs together produce 2 million tonnes of sugar
(or 1% of the world’s production) and consume 3.5 Million
tonnes. The Community produces 18 million tonnes of sugar. Even
if LDCs were able to increase their exports of sugar by 30%, they
could at most export a quantity of 100, 000 tonnes to the EU
market. While this is an insignificant increase in imports for
the EU, it could represent a meaningful increase in exports for
LDCs.
Eurostep
has called on the EU to adopt the Commission’s EBA proposal
as soon as possible, and develop a strategy to address the supply
side constraints that hinder LDC exports to the EU. A
study on the EBA produced for Eurostep’s
member organisation – Oxfam GB - by the Institute for
Development Studies in Sussex, shows that the costs to the EU of
implementing the EBA are very small, in comparison to the
positive benefits it will bring for the least-developed
countries. The study argues that, though “some
developing countries that already benefit from preferential
access to the EU market have legitimate concerns about the impact
of the EBA on their trade with the EU, these concerns can and
should be addressed through positive measures, rather than an EU
retreat from the EBA proposal.” For a copy of the Oxfam
GB study, you may contact the Eurostep
secretariat or [email protected]
According
to an official from Mr Lamy’s office, The EU Member
State Working Groups will, this week, begin discussions on
the technical details of the EBA proposal, as agreed by the
College of Commissioners. The proposal will then go to the EU
General Affairs Council on 26-27 February and then to the EU
Agriculture Council on 19- 20 March. It then goes back to the EU
College of Commissioners for final agreement. EU Member States
supporting the EBA proposal, hope to have the proposal agreed
before or by the 3rd UN LDC Conference
taking place in May, at the latest.
2.
ASEM FINANCE MINISTERS OPTIMISTIC OVER GROWTH PROSPECTS IN ASIA
Finance
Ministers of ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) expressed confidence at
the nature of economic growth in Asia, at the close of the ASEM
Finance Ministers’ meeting in Kobe, Tokyo, last week. The
ministers agreed to do more to resist external shocks and
increase EU-Asian cooperation through:
Ø
Launching the second operational phase of the ASEM Trust Fund,
aimed at providing technical assistance to support the financial
industry and social reforms necessary to keep up sustained growth
in Asia.
Ø
Establishing a joint forum for the management of public debt, as
proposed by Thailand.
Ø
Launching the Kobe Research Project, as proposed by Japan, to
carry out joint studies and projects in areas such as regional
monetary cooperation and exchange rate regimes.
The
minister from the EU and Asian countries that make up ASEM
(Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the
Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei), called for the
speeding up of negotiations for the accession of ASEM countries
that are not yet members of the WTO. The ministers also called
for the launching of a new WTO Round as soon as possible.
3.
ACP-EU CIVIL SOCIETY ELECTRONIC DISCUSSION ON COTONOU AGREEMENT
FOCUSES ON CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPATION
The
ACP-EU civil society electronic discussion on a common programme
for monitoring the Cotonou Agreement, organised by Eurostep,
in collaboration with a wide range of ACP and EU civil
society organisations, will begin discussions on experiences,
strategies and mechanisms for civil society participation in the
implementation of the Cotonou Agreement on 22 January 2001.
The electronic discussion has already discussed issues such as
future trade arrangements under Cotonou and systems of
collaboration between ACP and EU civil society. The discussion
aims to come up with proposals for a common ACP-EU civil society
programme for advocacy and monitoring of the Cotonou Agreement. Civil
society representatives interested in joining the debate should
contact [email protected]
4.
VACANCY - THE GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR EDUCATION SEEKS NEW COORDINATOR
The
Global Campaign for Education is seeking a new coordinator. The
purpose of the job is to coordinate and advise the Global
Campaign for Education on the development and delivery of its
advocacy strategy. The location of work is Brussels and the
contract is for two years (full time) Candidates from the South
with campaigning experience are particularly encouraged to apply.
All applications/queries should go directly to Elie Jouen at
Education International - [email protected].
Letters of application and CVs should be sent to Ms Jouen by 30
January 2001.
5.
IN BRIEF
According to this
week’s European Voice, banana industry experts
believe that the EU stands a better chance of ending its dispute
with the US on its banana regime under the incoming Bush
administration in the US.
The EU through its
Swedish Presidency has strongly condemned the attack on the
President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mr Laurent
Kabila, which led to his death. The EU urges all parties to the
Lusaka Agreement to respect their commitment to the accord and
comply with relevant UN accords. The EU also reiterates its
support for the territorial integrity of the DRC.
The ACP-EU
Joint Parliamentary Assembly will take place in Libreville
(Gabon) from 19 to 23 March 2001. Its working group on
sanctions and embargoes will meet on 29 30 January at the
European Parliament in Brussels. For more information you can
contact the European Parliament at Tel: (32-2) 284 21 11.