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1. MARATHON ACP-EU MINISTERIAL NEGOTIATIONS SESSION YEILDS AGREEMENT
Following a marathon negotiating session, ACP-EU ministers have reached an agreement on almost all the contentious issues that have plagued the ACP-EU negotiations to date. This is according to the European Commission, who held a press conference on Thursday 9 December to announce the results of the 3rd ACP-EU Ministerial Negotiations Conference that was held on 7-8 December in Brussels. The negotiation session, which was supposed to be the last round of negotiations at Ministerial level, had stretched on long after the envisaged end at 18:00 on 8 December, till 6 AM on 9 December with no apparent sign of an agreement.
However at the press conference, the Mr Philip Lowe, Director General of the European Commission’s Directorate for Development, stated that the negotiators had arrived at a satisfactory result for all parties involved. However due to the prolongation of the session it had not been possible to finalise a text on the conclusions of the negotiations.
On trade, Mr Lowe said the negotiators were able to confirm commitment on both sides to an eight-year preparatory period before the introduction of new ACP-EU trade arrangements. Following the preparation period, all ACP countries are invited to participate in either National or Regional Economic Partnership Agreements (N/REPAS). However Mr Lowe claimed that the decision to accept the invitation is in the hands of the ACP. Mr Lowe emphasised that beyond the eight-year preparatory period, there will be a further ten to fifteen year transition period towards free trade. He said the ACP and the EU would work together within the WTO to make sure that the ACP’s integration into the world economy is as smooth as possible.
While the export revenue stabilising instruments of STABEX and SYSMIN would be dismantled as separate financial instruments, the negotiators had agreed that ACP countries will be able to receive financial support if there was a significant dip in their overall export earnings. Criteria for access to this support will depend on the extent to which export revenues have dipped and, inter alia, their relation to the mining and agricultural sectors.
Agreement is yet to be reached on the improvement of ACP access to EU markets and any provisions to replace or compensate the dismantling of the special terms provided to some ACP countries on rum and rice, in the so called protocols attached to the current Lomé Convention. These issues according to Mr Lowe will be addressed in the coming weeks, and will be attached as Joint Declarations to the ACP-EU Agreement.
On the contentious issue of the inclusion of ‘good governance’ among the essential elements of the ACP-EU Agreement, Mr Lowe stated that the negotiators had agreed that ‘good governance’ be referred to as a ‘fundamental element’ of the Convention. While the broad concept of good governance as a whole would not be linked to procedures that could lead to suspension of aid, serious corruption, a component of good governance, would be linked to suspension of aid.
On political dialogue the question surrounding migration still needs to be resolved. Here the ACP has argued that, “equal access to education is in keeping with the spirit of the ACP-EU Partnership and the desire to build up capacity in the ACP States”. The EU is however of the view that the issue of education in relation to migrants falls outside the scope of the future ACP-EU agreement. According to an EU Member State official, persisting disagreement over migration is the most outstanding issue of contention between the two parties. According to Mr Lowe the issue of migration will also be addressed in a Joint Declaration to be attached to the new Agreement.
Other results of the Conference include the ACP’s apparent withdrawal of its request for all the cancellation of all ACP debt to the EU under previous Lomé Conventions, the agreement that civil society organisations be recognised as actor of the partnership, and a provision for stateless governments such as Somalia to access funds under the Agreement through co-operation with civil society.
Mr Lowe said that both parties have now instructed their technical staff to begin translating the agreement reached at the Conference into text for the next Agreement. He said that he expected that by January 2000, at the latest, the ACP and the EU would agree to the final text for the new agreement. The present Lomé Convention runs till the end of February 2000.
On why the EU had failed to agree to request a waiver from the WTO for the extension of current ACP-EU trading arrangements for the preparatory period before future arrangements, 90 days before their expiry date, Mr Lowe stated that 90 days was the maximum period in which a waiver had to be requested. The WTO had not stipulated what the minimum period was.
On the level of finance of the next European Development Fund (EDF), i.e., the principal budget for ACP-EU framework agreements, Mr Lowe stated that the EU had proposed that € 13.8 billion be used for the 9th EDF during the first five years of the future agreement. However € 300 000 of this amount would be given to the EU’s Overseas Countries and Territories leaving € 13.5 billion for the ACP. Out of this figure, 1 billion would be kept in reserve till 2004. The use of this 1 billion would be conditional on financial performance.
Mr Lowe in conclusion said that the agreement was a signal to developing countries that the EU, consistent with its approach at the Seattle Ministerial Conference, aims to deepen its trade relations with developing countries. He said while it had been agreed that the entire agreement stretch over a minimum period of 15 years, if the whole process of the move to future trade arrangements was to be completed, then the Agreement would have to last about 20 years. However it was revealed at the press conference that one EU Member State, thought to be Germany, is against agreeing to an Agreement that lasts over 15 years.
Regarding the possible accession of Cuba and East Timor to the Agreement, Mr Lowe said the two countries had not giving any indication yet that they were willing to sign up to the Agreement as agreed at the Conference.
At the time of preparation of this edition of the PAF, the ACP was yet to present its version of the results of the Conference. However an ACP press conference was scheduled for 3:00 PM on Friday 10 December. The PAF will endeavour to provide information on this next week.
Eurostep’s initial reactions to the results of the Conference, as we have heard them, is that the EU has, to a large extent, achieved its goal of pushing a lot of its proposals that it had set out before the negotiations. Most of the issues that are yet to be agreed such as market access, migration and the question of some trade protocols principally represent ACP concerns. However at this stage it is impossible to provide a fuller analysis of the conclusions of the Conference without seeing the written text being prepared. Such an analysis will be carried out by Eurostep as soon as more information seeps out.
2. EU REJECTS DRAFT CONCLUSION OF WTO MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
The draft conclusion of the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Seattle has been rejected by the EU on the grounds that it does not sufficiently reflect the EU’s fundamental position, notably on a) Article 20 of the Marrakech Agreement as the basis of negotiation; b) maintenance of aid for environmental products; c) food security; d) the economic viability and development of rural regions and whether there should be a reduction of all forms of export subsidies. The EU Council will meet on Friday 10 December to assess overall results and the draft conclusions prepared.
Press reports of the marginalisation of developing countries in the discussions, poor organisation of the meetings and the lack of transparency in many of the procedures in Seattle, correspond with reports from representatives of Eurostep member organisations who were present in Seattle. On the ‘winners and losers’ of Seattle, according to a representative from the Belgian NGO network NCOS, the EU was not the only loser at Seattle. Developing countries also lost out because they failed to convince the developed countries to agree to effectively address the imbalances of the Uruguay Trade Round that adversely affect developing countries.
3. IN BRIEF
The European
Parliament looks likely to postpone, till next spring, the vote
on the arrangements for the financing of the reconstruction of
Kosovo.
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