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The US officially asked the WTO Disputes Settlements Body to include on its agenda, for its meeting on 25 January, the US's request to introduce trade sanctions against the EU, due to the US's dissatisfaction with the EU's revised banana trade regime with traditional banana producers in the Caribbean. In a conference in Washington, American special negotiator for agriculture, Mr Schear, explained the US's position, stating that the EU has not respected conclusions of the WTO Panel ruling against the EU banana trade regime. He announced that pork has been added to the list of products to face trade sanctions, except that originating from Denmark and the Netherlands due to the position taken by these two countries in the debate on the reform of the EU banana regime. Mr. Schear warned that if the EU does not react positively within ten days following 25 January, the US will implement the sanctions announced consisting of 100% duties on a selection of EU products.
The EU last year adopted reforms on its banana regime that were supposed to come in force from 1 January 1999. This follows the WTO panel ruling against the previous EU banana regime, on the grounds that it was discriminatory towards other banana producers, particularly from Latin America. The US has spearheaded a campaign supporting bananas from Latin American countries, which are marketed by US company Chiquita, against the EU trade regime.
2. THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
Mr. Philip Lowe, Director General of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Development (DG VIII) made a presentation on, "the EU's development effort for ACP countries in 1998 and perspectives for 1999", at the European Parliament's Development Committee this week. Mr. Lowe said that with 2.5 billion euros in commitments, the performance of the European Development Fund (EDF) was one of the best in the last 15 years. In terms of payments, last year's 1.5 billion euros was the EDF's best ever result with respect to deploying programmable resources. Mr. Lowe said these results have been achieved at a time when conditions for optimal utilisation of the budget were not always favourable, referring to the suspension of budget lines for a number of months and the establishment of the Commission's Common Service for Community Aid to non-EU countries.
Mr. Lowe, however, conceded that there are areas where improvements in the utilisation of the budget should be improved, namely: rehabilitation, demining operations, co-financing with NGOs and gender questions. On perspectives for 1999, the Director General said the main aim was to reach an agreement with ACP countries taking account of financial allocations decided at the Cannes Summit. Regarding the EDF, he said 3 billion euros worth of commitments are anticipated from the 8th EDF with exact amounts allocated through National Indicative Programmes (NIPs) to exceed 2 billion euros (50% more than in 1998). NIP payments are anticipated to reach 1.7 billion euros.
Mr. Lowe also spoke of aims to strengthen the quality of programmes and actions and reform working methods. He identified the information and communication policy as the one area, he would like to make speedy progress. The aim is to make public as much information as possible about cooperation with the ACP. He said the only constraint will be where ACP partners insist upon confidentiality, to this end he will be writing to ACP governments seeking their agreement for the publication of strategy documents, regional and national indicative programmes, evaluation reports and studies, etc.
In the ensuing discussions, Mr Lowe said the independent studies commissioned by the Commission on Regional Economic Partnership Agreements with the ACP would not impact on the Commission's position to implement REPAs. The studies on REPAs released last year, largely concluded that REPAs with ACP regions within the intended time-frame would not be feasible or viable for most ACP countries.
In another presentation to the Development Committee, German Development Minister and President in office of the EU Development Council, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said development policy should be seen as a policy of peace. She informed the EP's Development Committee on the priorities of the German Presidency in development cooperation as: a) the new ACP-EU Agreement; b) effectiveness of EU aid; c) and improvement of mechanisms and instruments for EU development cooperation. On the new ACP-EU agreement, she said a more politically oriented discussion should be on human rights, good governance and democracy. She also suggested the integration of the ban on landmines and ways of solving the small arms problem into the new agreement. Concerning the effectiveness of development co-operation, she said the issue will be taken up at the next Development Council in May 1999.
In the ensuing discussion, the Minister stated that she was keen to follow up on issues concerning equity and gender. Germany will be calling on African countries to live up to agreements made in Beijing. Commenting on German aid as a percentage of the national budget, she said the percentage had fallen under the previous government from 0.48% to 0.28%. The present government are however, looking to reverse this trend. On the budgetisation of the EDF she said it would be difficult to change the present situation from one day to the next, but she finds (as a former MEP) that the principle of the EDF controlled by the EP as natural. When questioned on the dispute over EU banana trade regime, the German Minister conceded that the new German Government had not developed a new position on the issue.
3. WORLD BANK LOOKS INTO THE STABILISATION OF ACP EXPORTS
A World Bank mission visited Brussels this week at the start of its new initiative looking at mechanisms to stabilise commodity prices. Both the European Commission and the ACP have been urging the Bank to take a lead in this area since they held a seminar on this issue last April. This interest results from the review of STABEX (the instrument that stabilises exports from ACP countries to the EU) as part of the current ACP-EU negotiations. It appears to have been the ACP's pressure that led to the Bank's board recent agreement for this initiative. The initial stage of the project is the establishment of an expert International Task Force to explore the idea. This will meet three to four times over the next few months, with the first two meetings already fixed for Brussels (hosted by the ACP for the first meeting, and the Commission for the second). The visit to Brussels included a meeting with NGOs, hosted by the Eurostep secretariat. The mission were also planning to visit London, Paris and Geneva.
4. IN BRIEF
A summary of the joint EU NGDO paper - Towards a Poverty Focus in EU Development Policy commissioned by Eurostep, the NGDO Liaison Committee, APRODEV , Solidar, EURODAD, WIDE, International Save the Children Alliance and NGO VOICE was presented in the European journal - Agence Europe this week. The paper calls on the EU to ensure that development policy is fully integrated into its long term financial planning. The EU's financial perspectives must reflect the objectives set out in Articles 130 U-Y of the Maastricht Treaty. To recieve a copy of the paper you can contact the Eurostep secretariat or any of the above mentioned organisations. The paper should also be shortly available on the Euforic website - www.euforic.org
MEP Richard Howitt's report on EC standards for European companies operating in developing countries was adopted by the European Parliament last week. The report calls for a European code of conduct that incorporates minimal existing international standards with respect to human, minority and indigenous rights; working conditions; the environment; and anti-corruption. Respect of the code would be monitored by a surveillance body.
The EP last week called for the promotion of good governance with an explicit reference to fighting corruption, to become one of the essential elements of the next ACP-EU Agreement. According to the EP this should involve a system of "control and intervention" from both the EU and the ACP. The EP's position follows its adoption of the report by MEP Fernando Fernandez Martin on the Commission communication on democratisation, the rule of law and good governance.
5. CORRIGENDA
The ACP Ministerial Negotiating Meeting in Dakar, Senegal will take place on 8-9 February 1999 and not on 7-8 February 1999 as stated in last week's PAF (116).
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