1.
FIRST ACP TRADE MINISTERIAL COMMITTEE MEETING
At
the first ACP Ministerial Trade Committee in Johannesburg (South
Africa) on 10 and 11 April it was agreed that while countries and
regions were entitled to take national or regional approaches to
the upcoming negotiations between the ACP countries and the EU on
future trade arrangements, it was essential to ensure that
there was sufficient coordination within the ACP Group to prevent
any weakening of solidarity among its members.
The
Committee agreed that preparations for the negotiation of new
trading arrangements with the European Union, scheduled to begin
in September 2002, should be accelerated in view of the short
time remaining. In particular, Ministers mandated the ACP
Committee of Ambassadors and the ACP Secretariat to prepare draft
guidelines for the negotiations. The Committee agreed to
recommend to the next ACP Council of Ministers (Brussels, 8-10
May 2001) the draft Plan of Action for preparing the negotiations
which sets out the types of activities to be undertaken (regional
seminars, impact studies, etc.) and the deadlines to be
respected.
The
ACP Ministerial Trade Committee, which is composed of 18 members
from the 6 ACP sub-regions (Southern African, Eastern Africa,
Central Africa, West Africa, the Pacific and the Caribbean),
appointed Anthony Hylton, Minister of Foreign Trade of Jamaica as
Chair for a period of six months. The Ministers of Trade from
Kenya and Samoa will take over the chairmanship in October 2001
and April 2002, respectively.
The
Committee also adopted the agenda of the first meeting of the
ACP-EU Ministerial Trade Committee, scheduled to take place in
Brussels on May 14, 2001. This joint committee, which will be,
co-chaired on the EU side by Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, and
includes ministerial representatives from all 15 EU member
states, has a specific mandate to oversee preparations for the
forthcoming negotiations, but also to supervise the
implementation of the trade provisions of the Cotonou Agreement,
in particular questions of market access.
The
Committee also held consultations with South Africa on the
experience in the negotiations of the South Africa-European Union
Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) on the
following issues: economic governance, including issues of
government procurement; trade-related issues, including rules of
origin, sanitary and phytosanitary regulations, environment and
fisheries; adding value to key sectors and commodities; strategic
options in trade policy; the experience of ACP countries with
regard to the African Growth and Opportunity Act, the Caribbean
Basin Initiative, the Free Trade Areas of the Americas, and the
lessons to draw from the negotiations of the Lomé and Cotonou
Agreements.
2.
DECISIONS OF THE LIAISON COMMITTEE OF EU NGDOs GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Further
to last week’s report on the outcome of the Liaison
Committee of EU NGDOs (CLONG) General Assembly, please find
further information. Among the decisions taken by the assembly
were the following:
§
The CLONG 2001 Work Plan, budget and funding proposal to the
Commission were approved
§
All delegations were asked to stress to their member NGOs the
importance of raising adequate funding for the CLONG if its
independence from the EC was to be assured and to confirm their
platform’s agreement on the payment of the 2001 membership
fee at or before the June LC meeting.
§
The CLONG was requested to prepare and propose to the next GA a
multi-annual plan for the rebuilding of the association’s
reserves.
§
The establishment by the CLONG of a Task Group to work on the
Restructuring of the Liaison Committee was endorsed and its
mandate, proposed work plan, methodology and plans for
consultation with NGOs and networks approved.
§
The Secretariat’s plans for further policy work on the EC
Development Policy Statement and Programme of Action were
accepted.
§
The resolution proposed by solicitors regarding liquidation
was approved, as follows: « With due
regard to the prospects of a result in the dispute between the LC
and the Commission, the General Assembly, decides to pursue its
activities. However, in the absence of an agreement
or a court settlement being reached shortly, which would allow
activities to continue, the General Assembly would approve the
decision by the Liaison Committee to apply for dissolution and
the appointment of a liquidator with the Tribunal of First
Instance in Brussels ».
§
The terms of the Commission’s proposed package for a
settlement on the outcome of the Ernst & Young audit
and for future relations with the EC were accepted and the LC
authorised to continue negotiations on these lines.
Meanwhile
according to press reports, the European Commission and CLONG are
close to reaching an agreement on the funding of CLONG’s
operations. You may recall that following an audit report
claiming mismanagement within CLONG, the European Commission,
last December, froze all payments it was due to CLONG, while
demanding that the NGO association pay back almost € 1
million it had received from the Commission. (See PAF 225). The
College of European Commissioners will discuss the situation of
CLONG at its next meeting on 25 April 2001.
3.
ECUADOR ASKS FOR CONSULTATIONS ON EU-US BANANA DEAL –
CARIBBEANS SATISFIED WITH SETTLEMENT
As
suspected the dispute over the EU’s banana trade regime with
ACP countries has not yet been resolved, following last
week’s deal between the EU and the US on new EU banana trade
regime (See PAF 225). Ecuadorian authorities have reacted
strongly to the announcement of the EU-US deal. In a letter
from Ecuador Ambassador, Alfredo Pinoargote, to the EU
Commissioner for Trade, Pascal Lamy, Ecuador expresses its
disagreement over last week’s banana compromise. Ecuador
insists that the banana dispute cannot come to an end by simply
satisfying the interests of a country that does not even produce
bananas (referring to the US). Ecuador is requesting
consultations with the EU on the matter. According to the letter,
if no satisfactory solution is found, Ecuador will not have any
other alternative than that of requesting immediate consultations
within the WTO. Ecuador had supported the previous Commission
‘first come-first serve’ proposal for reform of its
banana trade regime. This was set to offer licences to the first
operators to deliver their fruit to EU ports by set target dates
at specific prices. However, reports in the European press
indicated that the US was not in favour of this scheme either.
According
to a European Commission spokesperson, last week’s banana
deal is in Ecuador’s favour. The Commission argues that
Ecuador would be able to export more bananas to the EU under the
new deal than under the first come-first served proposal.
Meanwhile
the Caribbean Regional Organisation, CARICOM, has welcomed the
new banana deal. The Caribbean is the main region that
EU’s banana trade regime with ACP countries is directed at.
According to an Inter Press Service report, the deal has come at
a time when Caribbean farmers fearful that the market guaranteed
to them by the EU banana trade regime would collapse, were
leaving the industry or reducing the acreage planted in bananas.
The
Caribbean had feared that the previous EU ‘first come-first
served’ proposal would have ruined farmers in the Eastern
Caribbean states, since it takes valuable time for banana ships
to travel from one small island to another picking up fruit
before heading to Europe. According the CARICOM trade chief,
Byron Blake, the new deal merely chops of 100 000 from the 850
000 ton quota allocated to the ACP.
4.
EUROSTEP MEETING ON THE EBA
Eurostep
aim to organise a meeting on, the ‘Implementation Issues
Arising from the Everything But Arms Initiative’, on 3 May
at the European Parliament. Participants should include MEPs,
developing country government representatives and NGOs. The
objective of the meeting is to promote closer scrutiny of how the
Everything But Arms-EBA initiative is to be implemented, in order
to ensure that least developed countries benefit from the EBA
initiative at minimal cost to existing developing country
exporters.