|
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.
© Eurostep. Please address comments to [email protected]