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Bolivia split over government plans
Male circumcision reduces AIDS risk
German volunteers in developing countries
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Debate on impact of Paris Declaration
Much remains unresolved in EPA talks
Trade in blood diamonds continues
US to boost the military attention it pays Africa
Fewer wars and cases of genocide
02/2007
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[ Trade agreements ]
Much remains unresolved in EPA talks
The negotiations between the ACP countries (Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific) and the European Union over regional Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) will enter into their crucial phase in 2007. According to plan, agreements should come into effect at the beginning of 2008, but, on many issues, the parties are still of diverging opinions. Moreover, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) opened the last round of negotiations by dropping a bombshell. They want the talks to be extended by three years to 2011, arguing that the extra time is needed to clarify points as yet unresolved.
On the other hand, the Caribbean countries organised in CARIFORUM want to stick to the 2008 deadline. CARIFORUM was the first ACP group to present a joint assessment with the EU Commission on negotiation progress so far. Similar documents involving the other five regional groups were expected to be available shortly after D+C went to print. These assessments will next be summarised in a comprehensive ACP-EU evaluation.
As points in which the negotiations are well advanced the CARIFORUM-EU paper lists environmental protection, the removal of technical trade barriers, sanitary and phytosanitary standards, competition policy and public procurement regulations. However, opinions still widely differ on many other issues, including development assistance and the dismantling of tariffs and investments. The CARIFORUM countries, for example, want the EU to commit to future assistance in the EPA, while the Commission insists that EU development assistance is already regulated in the Cotonou Agreement. The Caribbean countries, in turn, refuse to accept obligations for the entire region, arguing that CARIFORUM, a loose association of 15 sovereign states, is not even authorised to do so. Furthermore, they stress that the EPA should take account of individual countries’ varying levels of development. The EU Commission, on the other hand, argues that this kind of differentiation would go against the EPA objective of strengthening and deepening regional integration in CARIFORUM.
At a summit in Khartoum in December, the heads of state and government of the 79 ACP countries called for EPA flexibility. They adopted a “Khartoum Declaration”, appealing to the EU for additional aid in order to make up for the costs that the ACP countries will incur through liberalisation.
The Declaration bemoans that the EU has not proposed any alternatives to the EPAs, even though the Cotonou Agreement requires it to do so in the event of an ACP member declaring not to be in a position to enter into an EPA yet. Furthermore, the heads of state spoke out against negotiations on topics such as competition policy, investment and government procurement. The Declaration states that ACP countries should only negotiate these matters once they have defined their own positions and have set up appropriate institutions and established human resources.
A network of five farmers’ organisations from Africa and the Caribbean has also expressed itself in favour of extending EPA negotiations. In a joint statement issued in December, it says that before the ACP regions open to the outside, they should strengthen economic integration amongst themselves. The development of regional markets is said to offer better prospects in the fight against poverty and for economic development than the “hypothetical growth of international markets.” (ell)
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