1.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION BOWS TO PRESSURE AND FORMALLY ADAPTS
EVERYTHING BUT ARMS PROPOSAL
According
to a European Commission press release issued this week, the
European Commissioner for Trade, Pascal Lamy, has been
given the green light to adapt the 'Everything But Arms' proposal
to improve market access for the 48 Least Developed Countries.
The Everything But Arms (EBA) initiative, proposed by the
European Commission, three months ago calls for all Least
Developed Countries (LDCs) 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. Mr Lamy and the
Commission Trade Directorate had been under pressure from the
Commission’s Directorate for Agriculture as well as European
sugar producers to weaken the EBA proposal by extending the
derogation period for rice sugar and bananas. (See PAF 214) 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.
According
to a statement on the Commission’s Directorate for
Trade’s website, the principal elements of the adaptation of
the proposal are as follows:
Ø
Flexibility allowing for longer phasing in periods for bananas
(starting on 1.1. 2002 and completion at the latest 1.1.2006),
sugar (start 1.7.2006, complete 1.7.2009) and rice (start
1.10.2006 complete 1.10. 2009).
Ø
To compensate for the possibly longer delay on sugar and rice, a
duty-free quota will be created to ensure increased, effective
market access for LDCs into the EU market in the interim period:
the quota will be based on the LDCs best export figures in the
1990s increased each year by a cumulative growth rate of 15%.
Mr Lamy will now
present the adapted proposal to EU Ministers. The Commissioner
has expressed his confidence that he now has enough room to
manoeuvre to ensure that the proposal enjoys the support of the
EU Member States and the European Parliament. The EBA will
come into effect as soon as it is agreed by the EU Member States
in the EU Council.
The
European Community is by far the biggest importer of LDC products
in the world. In 1998, LDCs exported goods worth a total of
€ 15,488 million, and the EU imported 56 percent of these,
i.e. € 8,714 million. US imports were worth € 5,586
million (36 percent), Japan Euro 942 million (6 percent), and
Canada € 244 million (2 percent).
Eurostep,
in a letter last year, called on the EU to adopt the
Commission’s EBA proposal in its original format, 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 – prepared 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. (Contact [email protected]
for a copy)
2.
HAITI CRITICISE EU DECISION ON SUSPENSION OF COOPERATION
Following the EU’s suspension of co-operation with Haiti,
the Haitian government has issued a statement describing these
sanctions as premature. According to the Government of Haiti,
"the European
Union has not taken due account of the process of dialogue which
has been intensified in Haiti … the European Union has
ignored all the efforts underway in Haiti, by adopting sanctions
barely a few days after the investiture of the new,
democratically elected President of Haiti.
The EU has accused
Haiti of violating Article 9 of the Cotonou Agreement relating to
Democracy, Human Rights and Good Governance, invoking two
arguments: a bad system for counting votes during the recent
legislative elections in Haiti, and the intimidations exerted on
the opposition candidates at that time. During the
consultations between the EU and Haiti on 26 September 2000, the
Haiti government observed that the criticised counting system was
the one applied at the previous elections in Haiti, which were
hailed as free and honest by the international community.
The ACP Secretariat is also of the opinion
that the consultation procedures under Article 96 of the Cotonou
Agreement must be clearly defined. In this particular case in
point, it regrets that only one formal meeting has been held
between the two parties. The discussions the EU representatives
are said to have held in Haiti without any notification to the
Haiti side cannot be considered as being within the framework of
the consultations enshrined in Article 96 of the Cotonou
Agreement. The ACP Secretariat has called on the EU to
engage in true consultations with Haiti whose economic situation
is already in a very precarious situation.
3. EU-INDIA
ROUNDTABLE CALLS FOR INTISENFICATION OF CIVIL SOCIETY CONTACTS
The first
EU-India roundtable, bringing together representatives from the
European Economic and Social Committee and Indian civil society,
took place this week in New Delhi India. The roundtable
inaugurated by Indian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jaswant
Singh, and EU Commissioner for External Relations, Chris Patten,
aims to institute a permanent forum for dialogue at the civil
society level in order to make proposals to the Indian Government
and EU institutions on EU-India relations.
The participants
decided at the close of the meeting to organise the next
roundtable in Brussels in July. The main theme will be the
contribution by civil society in the face of the stakes of
globalisation and sustainable development. The roundtable will
also have the task of making recommendations for the next
EU-India Summit in New Delhi in November.
The European
Economic and Social Committee is an EU institution that advises
the Commission, the Council and Parliament. It consists of
representatives from some categories of economic and social
activity.
4. EU
COMMISSIONER FOR DEVELOPMENT INVITES DEVELOPMENT NGO NETWORKS FOR
BRAINSTORMING MEETING
The European
Commission’s Directorate for Development on behalf of EU
Commissioner for Development – Poul Nielson - on 9
February 2001 invited EU NGDO Brussels based networks to a
brainstorming meeting. The meeting, involving officials from a
wide range of Commission services, discussed: dialogue between
the Commission and EU NGDOs, a new role of EU NGDOs, and the
EU’s Development Policy Statement. It was agreed at the
meeting to established a structured dialogue process between the
Directorate for Development and the NGDO networks. Meetings
involving all the major EU NGDO networks will be held on
biannually, with the first meeting foreseen before the summer
recess.
5. EU-AFRICAN
SEMINAR ON WTO ISSUES
EU
representatives and African countries belonging to the WTO met in
Cape Town this week to discuss new issues (investment,
competition, environment and trade facilitation) that are
emerging on the agenda for a future WTO round. The seminar
organised by the European Commission and the South African
authorities is the second of its kind initiated by the
Commission. A previous seminar was held in Chile last year. A
third seminar is foreseen in Asia.