EPAs: business as usual after the financial crisis?

EU, for instance, created an European Globalisation adjustment Fund (EGF) to help members to compensate their enterprises and workers who will lose their jobs and salary because of the fierce international competition and of the wild speculations which affect trade and markets.
However EU is continuing, on the other hand, to force ACP countries to open their markets still pushing them to sign EPAs agreements exposing their fragile economies and industrial sectors to this turmoil. On comment for all: Bharrat Jagdeo, president of Guyana which joined the EU and the other 13 Caribbean countries that signed the EPA in Barbados: “the only reason I’m going to sign this agreement is if Europe imposed GSP on my country, because I don’t have a choice. My exports are vulnerable, but outside of that, I will never subscribe to such an agreement”.

EPAs: where do we stand now?

Economic Crisis: World's Trade Unions Put Recovery and Reform Plan to G20

The top level union delegation discussed the plan with IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, World Bank President Robert Zoellick and heads of government from the G20 countries.
The world's unions are calling for a series of urgent actions to stave off the prospect of deep and longlasting global recession, coupled with major changes in the running of the global economy to turn back decades of deregulation policies that have caused the current crisis. A fresh push for development and decent work is needed, as well as a "Green New Deal" to tackle climate change effectively. The detailed union proposals are set out in a recovery and reform programme entitled the "Washington Declaration"

To download full document

Strong link between debt accumulation and trade, says UN Independent Expert

"The evolution of HIPC beneficiaries after debt relief clearly shows the strong link between terms of trade and the process of debt accumulation," he said.
Mr. Cephas Lumina, was appointed last March as the effects of foreign debt and the policies adopted to address them on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly, economic, social and cultural rights in developing countries.
The respective resolution also requested the Independent Expert to “contribute, as appropriate, to the process entrusted with the follow up to the International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD), with a view to bringing to its attention the broad scope of his/her mandate”. He submitted his statement as part of his contribution to the Doha FFD Review Conference.

Link to "trade and debt" full document

A message to the global leaders: never again!

This statement sketches an agenda for change that would resolve the crisis by putting people and the planet first. It starts from the experiences of groups and communities around the world. It speaks to a financial meltdown triggered in the very heart of the globalized capitalist economy that has combined with the growing crises of climate chaos and hunger, and that now reaches into every corner of the planet. This new crisis of predatory and unregulated “casino capitalism” is destroying jobs, lives and livelihoods, while wreaking havoc on currencies and stock markets around the world. It has taken resources from the many, while concentrating wealth in the hands of the few.

Link to http://www.choike.org/bw2/#english1

TRADE-AFRICA: Red Faces Over EPAs Red Herring

Although 35 ACP governments initialled agreements in late 2007, these have not yet been formally notified to the WTO. David O’Sullivan, the Commission’s director-general for trade, confessed on October 13 at a hearing at the European Parliament that the delays were ‘‘very worrying’’. He blamed the holdup on demands by the European Union’s governments that the accords be translated into the Union’s 23 official languages. This onerous requirement has ‘‘overloaded’’ the administration, he said, adding that Peter Mandelson, the EU’s former trade commissioner who was appointed to a ministerial post in the British government earlier this month, was irritated by the bureaucratic hurdles he had encountered when attempting to put the deals put into effect.
‘‘This is a very embarrassing situation,’’ O’Sullivan said. ‘‘Until a few days before his return to London, Mr Mandelson was pushing us and insisting ‘why can you not do better?’.’’ Frithjof Schmidt, a German Green member of the European Parliament (MEP), suggested he had been misled. ‘‘In 2007, we were told of the need for rapid notification (to the WTO),’’ Schmidt said, addressing O’Sullivan directly. ‘‘I think you did not inform us correctly during 2007.’’
Thirteen Caribbean countries are slated to sign an EPA for their region at a ceremony in Barbados this week. But O’Sullivan acknowledged that many of the accords reached with Africa will not be ready for signature until 2009. The African agreements have been limited to trade in goods and are being referred to by officials as ‘‘interim’’ or ‘‘steeping stone’’ deals. Negotiations are continuing with a view to expanding them, and to secure accords with more than 40 ACP countries that have so far not accepted any EPA.
The Commission is hoping that the widened accords will cover ‘‘new issues’’ such as the liberalisation of services, foreign investment, competition and public procurement. At a summit between the EU and African leaders in Lisbon last December, the European Commission President José Manuel Barroso gave a commitment that provisions which governments considered as contentious in the interim accords could be renegotiated.
African diplomats complain, however, that this commitment is not being honoured. One issue deemed especially contentious relates to restrictions in some of the EPAs on the use of export taxes. Some African countries levy taxes on export products such as cocoa, metal and live animals. For countries which have extremely small revenue bases, these duties are a significant source of income. Such duties could also be used to encourage the development of industries that process commodities before exporting them.
In one of his final speeches as an EU commissioner, Mandelson signalled his desire to have bans on export taxes inserted into all free trade agreements that the Union concludes. O’Sullivan said that the Union does not wish to ‘‘impose anything on anyone’’ but that it regarded open trading in raw materials as preferable to export taxes.
‘‘We understand fully the development concerns behind export taxes,’’ he told IPS. ‘‘We should be flexible to accommodate the genuine development concerns of our partners. On the other hand, there isn’t a functioning market in raw materials. Everything in the end suffers from that, including European industry, which is deprived of important inputs.’’
One African diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, described Mandelson’s comments on export taxes as ‘‘appalling’’. ‘‘In essence, what he is saying is that the EU intends to deprive ACP countries of valueadding activities,’’ the diplomat added. Nana Bema Kumi, Ghana’s ambassador to Brussels, said it is ‘‘paramount’’ that her country receives substantial aid from the Union if the EPA her country has signed is to succeed. Another major challenge, she added, is ‘‘to get the Ghanaian public to accept the EPA’’.
Under the accord, Ghana is to eliminate 80 percent of the tariffs it applies on imports from Europe within a 15-year period. ‘‘There is a genuine fear about the possible collapse of some Ghanaian industries because of their inability to compete (with European imports),’’ the ambassador said. ‘‘And the likely loss of tariff revenue cannot be overemphasised.’’ Cameroon expressed concern about how the collapse of the effort to revive the Doha round of world trade talks in July is having a knock-on effect on the EPA negotiations.
Shortly before the talks broke down, the European Commission sought to end a 15-year-old dispute with Latin American banana producers over preferences it had granted to ACP countries that grow this fruit. The Commission offered to reduce its import duties on Latin American bananas to 114 euros (179 dollars) a ton by 2016. The duty stands at 176 euros a ton today. Jacques Alfred Ndoumbe Eboule, Cameroon’s EU envoy, said that ‘‘Cameroon, like other ACP banana producers wants financial compensation’’ for any arrangement reached with Latin America. ‘‘The alternative is the decimation of our banana sector,’’ he added.
Karin Ulmer, a campaigner with Aprodev, an alliance of anti-poverty groups linked to Protestant churches, said that the EU’s maintenance of banana preferences was an issue of fundamental importance for Cameroon and that it should not have to implement an agreement which does not offer it sufficient protection. Of eight Central African countries involved in the EPA talks, only Cameroon approved an interim agreement last year. Talks aimed at reaching an agreement with the remaining seven governments in the regional grouping are continuing. ‘‘The region wants to negotiate as a region,’’ Ulmer noted. ‘‘The Commission should not weaken Cameroon by putting pressure on it or singling it out.’’

EU and East African Community (EAC) hold EPA technical talks in Bujumbura (15-17 September 2008)

The meeting was held in a very good and cooperative atmosphere and net progress was recorded to all discussed issues. Technical discussions were divided among two clusters: Cluster I on Market Access - including customs and trade facilitation; sanitary and phytosanitary measures; technical barriers to trade; standstill, MFN, duties and taxes on exports, anti-dumping and countervailing measures and safeguards for infant industry, and Cluster II on Economic and Development Co-operation.
They also addressed trade and sustainable development, and the European Commission made a presentation on its approach on trade in services.
Next round at technical and senior officials' level is scheduled for the week of 10-14 November 2008 in Brussels. On that occasion, negotiators will discuss outstanding market access issues, economic and development co-operation, trade and sustainable development, trade in services and agriculture.
Furthermore, it was agreed that EC make presentations on Intellectual Property Rights, Transparency in Government Procurement and Competition Policy.

Solomon Islands Plea For Pacific Solidarity

“I really don’t think we will go much further on our future trading arrangements with the EU unless we stick together,” Sisilo told a meeting of senior trade officials in Nadi, Fiji yesterday.
The officials are grappling with ‘the way forward’ for a comprehensive EPA they have been negotiating with the EU since September 2004 which needs to address contentious issues such as protection of infant industries, continuing export taxes, and boosting labour mobility and additional resources.
“At this stage of the negotiations it is crucial that we stand united on these outstanding issues and resist any temptation to go it alone or in small groups in the hope that it would be possible to secure greater benefits from the EU than by remaining as a group,” said Sisilo, a former Chief Trade Negotiator for the Pacific Island Countries at the Geneva-based World Trade Organisation.
Sisilo has every reason to call for regional solidarity since the country he so ably and effectively represents, Solomon Islands, has some very serious issues to resolve with the EU. But it cannot fight these alone – such as the right to protect its infant industries and to tax exports. The EU is insisting Solomon Islands and other Pacific Island Countries give up these rights.
When they met in Brussels last month Sisilo told the EU delegation; “Giving up these rights will materially retard industrial development in our countries, particularly the larger ones like my own, Solomon Islands, who is aspiring to go down that road.
“It will be the highest price we will pay and we just simply cannot afford that. And in any case these are the same rights EU countries used before achieving economic dominance.”
The Pacific ACP (African, Caribbean, Pacific) Trade Ministers will meet on Monday and Tuesday next week to agree on “the way forward on EPA” as recommended by the senior trade officials.
But at the end of the day each country will have to decide on its own approach to an EPA in light of its own national economic, trade, political and other interests before they meet up with the EU for the final push at the end of the year.

Link: http://www.pacificmagazine.net/news/2008/10/21/solomon-islands-plea-for-pacific-solidarity

Free trade warning

Just last week Caribbean leaders meeting in Barbados signed their own EPA with the EU amid warnings the deal could undermine development in the region.

For the past ten months Caribbean leaders have dragged their feet on signing the EPA which has been the subject of great controversy in Caribbean media and parliaments. Academics, trade unions and civil society have called for a renegotiation of the deal to make it more 'development friendly' and the President of Guyana said he would only sign the deal if he was forced. At the moment, only Guyana and Haiti have yet to sign the Caribbean EPA.

Pacific trade ministers, meeting today and tomorrow to discuss the Pacific's own EPA with the EU, have formally told the Europeans they are not interested in negotiating a deal that reflects the Caribbean one. In June, the Pacific's chief trade negotiator, Hans Joachim Keil, penned a letter to the (then) EU Commissioner for Trade, Peter Mandelson, explaining that the Pacific wants an EPA containing an optional deal on goods, but does not want to negotiate on services, investment and intellectual property rights at this time.

This appeared to have been accepted by the EU. Such a deal would satisfy the World Trade Organisation, but the EU is now demanding more from the Pacific. During meetings held in Brussels last month, the EU refused to discuss areas of interest to the Pacific such as providing strong infant industry protection in the EPA until the Pacific agreed to begin negotiations on services and investment.

Maureen Penjueli, coordinator of the Pacific Network on Globalization, said Pacific leaders can still avoid signing a "disastrous" deal like the EPA signed by the Caribbean. She said it was important Pacific ministers took a sobering lesson from the Caribbean experience. "The EPA signed last week is not about the sustainable development of small Caribbean developing countries," said Ms Penjueli. "It contains virtually nothing for the Caribbean, but instead opens the Caribbean to European exports, businesses and service providers, and contains new rules on trade that have been rejected by developing countries at the WTO.
This deal is not a recipe for economic partnership, but a menu to serve European economic interests."
Caribbean states tried to secure new access to the European market for Caribbean people to work in the EU as part of the "services" chapter in the agreement. This was also an objective originally being sought by the Pacific, however, many in the Caribbean argue that the conditions the EU included in the Caribbean deal make it unworkable.

The Caribbean Cultural Industries Network has said that "on the face of what has been agreed Bob Marley and countless other top Caribbean artists would be 'ineligible' to work in Europe under the EPA" so restrictive are the conditions. The Pacific has refused to negotiate on services because the EU has rejected Pacific proposals to allow more workers from the region into the EU. But the Pacific Network on Globalisation argues that there are other reasons for the Pacific Trade Ministers to stand strong and seek a development deal.

"Negotiating a 'comprehensive EPA' such as the Caribbean's could lead to a range of problems," said Ms Penjueli. "Such a deal would reduce Pacific countries' ability to regulate foreign investments in the public interest, could lead to an undermining of access to services (including essential services such as education and healthcare), and would restrict the ability to nurture Pacific businesses and industries. "It would also impose a long list of expensive obligations on Pacific states." Ms Penjueli said Pacific ACP trade ministers should defend the right to use a mixture of policy tools to promote development including the right to impose export taxes and nurture infant industries.

The EU had previously proposed that a "subgroup" of countries may wish to negotiate separately from the region, but this had been rejected by Pacific ministers. "Pacific ministers from across the region should maintain regional solidarity and uphold the decision to suspend negotiations on services and investment," Ms Penjueli said. "Our leaders have said before, and should always bear in mind, that it is better to walk away from a deal that undermines our development prospects than bow to EU pressure."

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=103832

African template for EPAs is endorsed - with recommendations

The endorsed recommendations for the template will now be forwarded to the African Union Commission for consideration in the finalisation of a draft template to be considered by African chief negotiators and senior officials, and for possible adoption by African Trade Ministers at their next meeting.

The request for the template was originally made by the Conference of African Union Ministers of Trade and Ministers of Finance at their meeting in April 2008. It is envisaged that the recommendations will contribute to the African Union's effort to adopt a consolidated EPAs template for the continent.The main aim of the two-day regional meeting in Addis Ababa was to take stock of the results of EPAs negotiations in the light of what African countries had hoped to achieve while at the same time evaluating how the progress towards the African Economic Community is likely to be affected by the EPAs.

In that context, in addition to discussing and improving elements proposed for the draft template for a prodevelopment EPA prepared by ATPC, the workshop participants also addressed pertinent negotiation issues including regional integration, market access, development, trade facilitation and services. In light of the issues discussed, the following recommendations were made:

• Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and member states, with the support of relevant organisations, should analyse the implications of emerging issues -- including global financial market problems -- on the implementation of EPAs and Africa's development in general;
• African countries and institutions promoting regional integration need to better articulate the impact of EPAs on the continent's regional integration agenda;
• ECA should assist in bringing all stakeholders on board the EPAs process and in developing a mechanism to respond to emerging issues that may influence the implementation of EPAs.

African countries have for the last six years been engaged in two important tracks of trade negotiations: the Doha Round at the World Trade Organisation and the Economic Partnership Agreements negotiations with the European Union. Given the broad objective of Africa's integration, a key challenge remains how the EPAs negotiations can consolidate rather than complicate the regional moves towards the creation of a Common African Market. As things stand the EPAs negotiations have resulted in interim agreements being initialled by individual African countries or groups of countries. These interim agreements vary across the countries and groupings. The critical question now is how to salvage the regional integration agenda given the possible inconsistency between regional objectives and the way in which several African countries and their European Union trading partners are progressing with bilateral trade agreements.

The following member states attended the workshop:

Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The following organisations were also represented:

United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Food and Agriculture Organisation, the African Development Bank, the African Union Commission, the International Trade Centre, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the ACP Secretariat, the African Economic Research Consortium, the African Capacity Building Foundation, Organisation of African Trade Union Unity, South Centre, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, European Centre for Development Policy Management, Chambre Consulaire Régionale de l'UEMOA, Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce, Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and the Islamic Development Bank.

Namibia remains steadfast on EPA concerns

The EC is the executive arm of the European Union (EU). "Under the EPAs, the fishing industry would have considerable problems about local value addition, since we import the cans and the tomato sauce to produce tinned fish and even the label to be put on the cans, but which EU countries would not regard as fish produced in Namibia," a government official said yesterday.

Presenting the topic to the parliamentary standing committee on economics, Malan Lindeque, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, told parliamentarians the fish products would not get dutyfree and quota-free access to the EU as they do not have "wholly originated" status.

"The results for our fishing industry would be severe and we will not compromise on this concern. The EU will have to be more flexible at the next round of talks in Brussels, Belgium, which start on November 3", Lindeque said. Namibia reluctantly initialled an interim EPA at the last minute just before Christmas 2007, allowing it duty-free and quota-free exports to the EU until the permanent EPA is agreed on. An existing trade agreement between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states expired at the end of last year.

Namibia exports beef, fish and table grapes, jointly worth N$3 billion a year to Europe.

Concerns of the Namibian government are that EU countries demand "most favoured nation" status in the services industry, allowing EU companies to submit local tenders in the 77 ACP countries, and that meat and grain imports from the EU could swamp the Namibian markets at possibly cheaper prices, destroying local agricultural production. Lindeque added that the previous EU Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, was "arrogant and the negotiating climate was hostile.

He even walked out on our Ministers of the southern African region," Lindeque told MPs.

Mandelson was recently appointed by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to serve in the UK government and Ashton replaced him at the EU. "We have prepared a legal opinion on our concerns which must be negotiated in Brussels," the permanent secretary noted. Namibia initialled an interim EPA at the end of 2007, which gives duty- and quota-free access to its exports for the time being. Government wants the EU to agree that no grain and beef will be exported to Namibia form its member states.

"Should all talks fail and Namibia does not sign the full EPA, then we will look at other markets like the USA, European countries which are not EU members like Norway, where we already export mutton and possibly Asia," according to Lindeque.

"Building new markets will not be easy and the financial impact in the interim quite substantial, but we don't have the figures yet." DTA politician Johan de Waal said it was time MPs used international forums such as the Inter Parliamentary Union to lobby for the concerns of small countries such as Namibia. "We have to push for greater flexibility from the side of the EU and that trade adviser Ndiitah Robiati of the Agricultural Trade Forum pointed out that developing countries did not have the means to subsidise their farmers as is done in the US and in Europe. The playing field is thus not level and these countries, including Namibia, must be afforded the measures to protect their farmers."

http://www.namibian.com.na/2008/October/marketplace/083449BD51.html

Geingob rips into WTO-EU deals

"With the SADC membership fragmented across several trade groupings with different tariffs regimes, there is no prospect for the creation for the envisaged SADC customs union," Geingob stated. "Namibia is resolute in ensuring that the economic partnership agreements [EPAs] are not allowed to cause more harm to regional integration initiatives in southern Africa and would, therefore, pull out all stops in ensuring that regional integration is given prominence and is supported in trade agreements with international trading partners." European Union Ambassador Elisabeth Pape hit back, saying she was "surprised about the attack that the EU through the European Commission [EC] is hindering regional integration in Africa".

"The EC has several indicative programmes in place like for infrastructure to aid developing countries improve regional integration," she said. "The different overlapping trade configurations in Africa were not created by Europe but by African countries, but we (EU) are attacked for contributing to the problems of African integration." Executive secretary Tswelelopele Moremi of the Windhoek-based Sacu secretariat noted that the fragmented trade blocs in Africa could not be blamed on the EU. "We however need to help the EU to recognise this and to help us bridge the divide," Moremi urged.

Pape explained what she called the misunderstanding of the most favoured nation (MFN) status EU member states want in the EPA and which SADC is resisting. "The EU countries do not want to pay import tariffs in each of the five Sacu member states, but only once," she said. Countries in southern Africa belonging to different regional trade blocs fear that the difficult negotiations to reach EPAs with the EU might jeopardise their own regional economic integration on the continent.

Trade expert Peter Draper accused the EU of "pushing the EPAs further than southern Africa can go". Draper, who is the director of policy research at the South African Institute of international Affairs, said there were "political reasons" behind that push. "The European Commission, the administrative arm of the EU, treats South Africa differently in the regional set-up than the other four member states of the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) and the members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)," Draper argued.

South Africa concluded a separate trade agreement with the EU but is part of the SADC group of countries negotiating the EPAs. At the same time South Africa is also a member of Sacu, together with Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland. To complicate matters more, the 14 SADC member states want to establish a customs union soon and the future of Sacu is in the balance. Other SADC members, such as Tanzania, are in the east African configuration in the EPA trade talks.

Rolf Otto, deputy director for trade and regional integration at the Sacu Secretariat, said the MFN clause in the EPA text would seriously undermine the newly formed SADC free-trade area. "Under the MFN clause we must give the same trade preferences to EU countries as to our southern trade partners like Brazil, where farmers are not subsidised by government like in the EU and that is not acceptable," Otto emphasised. Pape replied that the EU was aware of the African concerns, which were recently submitted in a position paper and would be discussed at the next round of talks.

http://www.namibian.com.na/2008/October/national/0834E0C3F2.html

Afrique de l'Ouest: Uemoa, Une position commune sur l'accès aux marchés internationaux

Les ministres du Commerce de l'UEMOA ont accordé leurs violons sur les différents points relatifs aux échanges notamment entre l'Union et les Etats-Unis d'Amérique, entre l'Union et l'Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) et sur la levée des entraves au développement des échanges intra-communautaires.

Les ministres ont examiné l'accord sur le développement des relations de commerce et d'investissement (TIFA) et les mesures envisagées en vue de dynamiser cet accord existant entre l'UEMOA et les Etats-Unis depuis le 24 avril 2002. Le TIFA, a indiqué le président de la commission de l'UEMOA, Soumaïla Cissé, a pour objectif de "développer les échanges commerciaux des huit Etats membres de l'Union avec les Etats-Unis d'Amérique, en facilitant l'accès de leurs produits au marché américain et en créant les conditions d'une intensification des investissements américains dans l'espace UEMOA".

Il a d'ailleurs salué la présence de l'ambassadeur des Etats-Unis, Jeanine Jackson et de la représentante américaine chargée du commerce pour l'Afrique, Laurie-Ann C. Agama, à la rencontre du 13 novembre 2008. Le TIFA se présente également, a poursuivi Soumaïla Cissé, comme un cadre idéal offert aux Etats de l'UEMOA pour mieux exploiter les facilités et les opportunités offertes pour "l'African growth an opportunity act (AGOA)". Les ministres du Commerce ont aussi fait le point sur l'évolution des négociations commerciales multilatérales à l'OMC sur l'agenda de Doha, le programme d'aide pour le commerce de l'UEMOA, le dossier de "l'initiative sectorielle en faveur du coton".

De même l'évolution des négociations de l'Accord de partenariat économique (APE) Afrique de l'Ouest - Union européenne, les négociations de l'Accord commercial et d'investissement avec le royaume du Maroc ont été passés à la loupe. Par ailleurs, les ministres chargés du commerce ont peaufiné le projet de mise en place du comité consultatif régional pour les négociations commerciales. Le président de la commission de l'UEMOA a souligné que l'adoption d'une position commune sur les questions commerciales contribue au renforcement du processus d'intégration.

En outre, le ministre du Commerce de la Côte d'Ivoire, Youssouf Soumahoro a entre autres indiqué que le programme de développement de Doha, débuté en 2001 offre une bonne opportunité d'intégrer les pays les plus vulnérables, dans le commerce international. "L'agenda de Doha pour le développement constitue, à ce titre, un espoir de croissance et de réduction de la pauvreté", a-t-il relevé. La commission de l'UEMOA a mené des études pour mesurer l'impact sur les économies de l'Union, des négociations en cours avec le royaume du Maroc. Ces études, a expliqué le ministre Soumahoro, sont d'un "grand intérêt, dans la perspective de la reprise des négociations bilatérales avec les pays frères et partenaires du Maghreb".

http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200811180356.html

EU finance for boosting trade capacity in developing countries reaches almost €1billion in 2005-07

To download full document

http://www.africa-eu.org/The-project/Newsletter/Newsletter-n.3-November-2008/EU-99-trade-facilitation-projects

Imminent deadline for GSP-Plus alternative to EPAs with the EU

The EU requires that their EPAs contain these issues.

There is a deadline of 31 October for countries to apply in this round for GSP+ status from the EU. If this deadline is missed, the next opportunity is to meet the next deadline of April 2010. With this deadline fast approaching, it seems surprisingly that few developing countries are aware of this attractive, nonreciprocal, alternative to free trade agreements for market access into the European Union.
In an effort to obtain market access into the European Union (EU), approximately 120 developing countries are negotiating regional trade agreements or economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with the EU.
These "FTAs" require reciprocal market liberalisation. It appears that the EU is requiring African countries in EPA negotiations to eliminate tariffs on about 80% of EU products by import value, according to a recent report co-published by the Overseas Development Institute of the UK.

Politicians and officials of many African countries have expressed serious concerns about th e adverse effects that such drastic liberalization will have on their economies. These concerns include the loss of tax revenue, and a surge of imports that would potentially cause dislocation to domestic farms and industries.
The officials of ACP countries are however also worried that by not signing on to an EPA with the EU, they could lose the preferences they enjoyed under the Cotonou Agreement. This is because the WTO waiver for the EU preferences to ACP countries expired at the end of last year.

Pressure is now put on African and Pacific countries to sign on to an EPA, with some having initialled an interim goods-only EPA. The Caribbean countries in CARIFORUM have recently signed on to a version of the full EPA with the EU.

Several development groups and independent experts have noted that an interesting and viable alternative to these FTAs for many developing countries is to instead enjoy non-reciprocal market access into the EU via its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP).
The GSP is a unilateral World Trade Organization-compatible trade arrangement where the EU provides non-reciprocal preferential access to its market to 176 developing countries and territories in the form of reduced tariffs for their goods when entering the EU. It is implemented by a Council Regulation applicable for a period of three years at a time.The EU's GSP covers three separate preference regimes:

• the standard GSP, which provides preferences to 176 Developing Countries and Territories on over 6300 tariff lines;
• the special incentive arrangement for Sustainable Development and Good Governance, known as GSP+, which offers additional tariff reductions to support vulnerable developing countries in their ratification and implementation of relevant international conventions in these fields; and
• the Everything But Arms (EBA) arrangement, which provides Duty-Free, Quota-Free access for the 50 Least-Developed Countries (LDCs).

According to the EU, the main qualifying criteria are that any GSP+ beneficiary country must be considered "vulnerable" and must also have ratified and effectively implemented 27 specified international conventions in the fields of human rights, core labour standards, sustainable development and good governance.

The EU's Regulation defines a vulnerable country as one:

• which is not classified by the World Bank as a high-income country during three consecutive years, and
• of which the five largest sections of its GSP-covered imports into the Community represent more than 75% in value of its total GSP-covered imports, and
• of which the GSP-covered imports into the Community represent less than 1 % in value of the total GSPcovered imports into the Community.

The first two of these conditions are also applicable to any developing country wanting to benefit from the normal GSP arrangement. It is the third condition that is additional for qualifying for GSP+ (in addition to treaty ratification).

There are about 92 non-LDC countries and territories which meet the vulnerability criteria, according to the EU's list at http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2008/july/tradoc_139963.pdf.

If applications received by 31 October 2008 are approved, these countries will receive GSP-plus treatment from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2 011. Furthermore, if countries are unable to meet the 31 October 2008 deadline, the Regulation allows another chance to apply by 30 April 2010 for GSP+ treatment to start from 1 July 2010

A letter from three EU member states to the Commission asking for more flexibility

To download full text

http://www.africa-eu.org/The-project/Newsletter/Newsletter-n.3-November-2008/Joint-letter-to-Com.-Ashton-nov.2008

November- December: Next EPA negotiation rounds: