EU eyes far-reaching trade deal with East Africa Taxes on almost two-thirds of imports from Europe would be scrapped by a group of East African countries under a free trade deal that may be signed later this week.
The European Commission is hoping that an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) will be signed with the East African Community – Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda – this Friday (30 November). This would be an important breakthrough in the EPA talks, which involve almost 80 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
Under this accord, a 25-year transition period would be granted for placing restrictions on trade in products that are deemed sensitive. Yet, according to The Financial Times, this will only apply to 5% of trade.
EU officials have claimed that such a low level of protection was suggested by the East African side.
Meanwhile, Peter Mandelson, the European commissioner for trade, strongly criticised the positions taken by Nigeria and South Africa in the EPA talks.
Speaking to MEPs last week, Mandelson alleged that the big countries are holding back their neighbours in the regional groupings involved in the talks from signing deals by an end-of-year deadline set by the EU.
His comments were sharply criticised by anti-poverty campaigners, who alleged that he is seeking to sow divisions among developing countries.
Climate aid pledge not being kept EU governments are failing to honour a pledge that countries most vulnerable to climate change will benefit from increased aid.
At a 2001 United Nations conference in Bonn, the EU, Canada, Norway, Switzerland, New Zealand and Iceland committed to jointly providing $410 million each year in 2005-2008 to help poor countries adapt to climate change. Most of this money was to be paid into the Global Environmental Facility in Washington, which distributes funds to climate change-adaptation projects run by the UN and World Bank.
Yet new data indicates that only $177 million had been paid to the Facility by September this year. A further $106 million has been committed but not yet handed over.
Mary Robinson, the former UN commissioner for human rights, said last week that there is a “complete nexus” between climate change and issues relating to global poverty.
Robinson, who was elected Ireland’s first female president in 1990, urged the EU to display “real leadership” at next month’s international conference on climate change in Bali. The gathering is intended as the launching pad for talks aimed at securing a successor to the Kyoto protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Michel ‘happy’ with aid for trade Louis Michel, the European commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, has described himself as “happy” that no plans for an international ‘aid for trade’ fund are under discussion at the moment.
Speaking to a meeting of the World Trade Organisation, Michel suggested it is preferable for international governments to focus on improving coordination between aid donors through joint analysis and joint programming, rather than through setting up new bodies.
Michel noted that during 2005, the European Union undertook to provide €2 billion per year by 2010 in aid to help poor countries become integrated into the global trading system. “We are delivering on these commitments,” he claimed, stating that on average the European Commission has given €880 million per year in aid for trade since 2001 and that EU member states have given an average of €370 million per year over the same period.
Michel acknowledged that much of this aid will be compensation for losses of revenue incurred when poor countries reduce the tariffs they levy on imports from poor countries. Paying such aid directly to the national exchequer of poor countries under a policy known as a budget support is a “particularly effective tool”, he contended.
Alternatives to GDP needed, EU figures admit Conventional measures of economic success do not take sufficient account of social and environmental challenges in the twenty-first century, senior European Union figures have admitted.
Since the 1930s, the main economic indicator used internationally to assess wealth is gross domestic product (GDP). It calculates the total final market value of all goods and services produced in a country over a set period.
While it has proven useful in comparing data from different countries, one of its main weakness is that it “cannot distinguish between activities that have a negative and a positive impact on the well-being” of society, said Joaquín Almunia, the European commissioner for economic affairs.
Output arising from wars and natural disasters may even register as an increase in GDP, he pointed out. Almunia was speaking at a Brussels conference last week (19 November) titled Beyond GDP.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has been monitoring the environmental performance of different countries using a combination of two alternative indicators. One is the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI), which is based on such data as life expectancy and school enrolment, as well as GDP per capita. The other is the Ecological Footprint, which measures the cropland, grassland, forests and fishing grounds needed to produce the food, fibre and wood a country consumes, along with the quantity of waste it produces.
“Living and thinking within the box defined by these two indicators is the single greatest challenge of the twenty-first century,” said Emeka Anyaoku, the WWF’s president and a former foreign minister in Nigeria.
According to the WWF, if everyone in the world consumed at the same rate as Europeans do, over two-and-a-half planets would be needed to provide the resources required, accommodate wastes and nurture some non-human species.
“We are now in ecological overshoot,” said Anyaoku. “In plain terms, this means that we are using more resources and emitting more waste than the planet can handle. Through this global overshoot, we are liquidating the assets on which human welfare depends. We are making existence ever more fragile and also taking away the development rights of future generations.”
Commonwealth raps EU over sugar Commonwealth governments have criticised the EU’s decision to scrap a three-decades old system giving sugar exporters from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries preferential access to their sugar exports to the Union’s markets.
The 53-country Commonwealth, which bands together the former British Empire, issued a statement saying it is “very regrettable” that the Sugar Protocol was ‘denounced’ by the EU earlier this year.
Meeting in Kampala, Uganda, Commonwealth governments also decided to suspend Pakistan from their ranks because of the state of emergency imposed by its military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
Vaclav Havel Writer and Dramatist; One of the first Spokesmen for Charter 77; Leading Figure of the Velvet Revolution of 1989; Last President of Czechoslovakia; and First President of the Czech Republic
"I am convinced that the responsibility which Europe carries is growing and that this must be assumed by the new member states."
