After years of difficult negotiations, Peter Mandelson, EU Trade Commissioner,
has finally secured adoption of a ruling which will bring into effect a set
of Economic Partnership Agreements with ACP member countries giving them free
access to the member states of the the EU for their goods exports in return
for opening their own markets to the EU after transition periods of up to 25
years.
The EU has been offering the ACP countries the EPAs to replace the trade chapters
of the 2000 Cotonou Agreement between the EU and the ACP countries, whose exemption
from WTO rules will expire at the end of 2007 after it was attacked by other
countries outside the Cotonou agreement, alleging ex-colonial preference.
The 78 ACP countries fall into three groups: those who have accepted the EPAs,
and are covered by this week's ruling - 15 of those; those which are still refusing
to accept the EPAs - 27 of those, and if they don't sign up by 31st December
they will find themselves back in the old 'GSP' regime as of January, with quite
high tariffs imposed on many of their key exports; and the remainder, who are
so poor that they are covered by unilateral EU concessions - to them, the EPAs
are irrelevant.
At this stage the EPAs only cover trade in goods; negotiations on services
have been postponed until 2008.
Peter Mandelson faced heavy criticism at last weekend's EU/Africa summit from
some African leaders, including Thabo Mbeki and Senegalese president Abdoulaye
Wade. "Both of them have absolutely nothing to lose," he hit back.
"If all of Africa has rejected EPAs, why are we getting people signing?"
he asked.
In a statement from Brussels on Tuesday, Mandelson summed up the situation
as follows:
"In East Africa we have a region-wide interim agreement including market
access deals with all the non-LDCs in the region. Many LDCs - despite the fact
they already benefit from 100% access under EBA - are keen to come on board
and, progressively, are doing so. Madagascar today, Malawi too, Zambia ready,
all with proper market access offers.
"In the Pacific, we have an interim-agreement with the two countries responsible
for almost all the trade with the EU - Papua New Guinea and Fiji. I expect to
enlarge this to a full regional agreement in 2008.
"In Southern Africa, we have an agreement with Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland
and Mozambique. Angola, ambitious in its market access offer, will I believe
join shortly. South Africa is staying out for now and already has its preferential
trade agreement with the EU. We are making progress with Namibia and I think
it will be possible to find a way through very soon.
"In West Africa, the position of Nigeria has made a regional agreement
impossible in the short-term. So we have sought to secure the position of those
who are most exposed. Ivory Coast signed an interim agreement on Friday. Our
discussions with Ghana confirm that we expect to reach an agreement soon.
"In Central Africa, a regional agreement is also not possible in the short-term.
So we must secure the position of the two who stand to lose out. Our teams have
been there over the past two weeks. We hope to have agreements with Cameroon
and Gabon, the other major non-LDC with whom we are also in touch, in the coming
days.
"In the Caribbean, following an intense negotiating drive, then a month
without movement, I believe the region now wishes to move ahead. Our senior
negotiators will meet them this week in order to seek to complete negotiations
before the end of the week."
For the last year, Mandelson has been doing his best to parlay the conflicting
interests of the ACP countries, the EU member states, the WTO's 'Aid for Trade'
program and the quarrelsome European Parliament into a coherent developing country
strategy. But reaching an agreement between all of these competing factions
proved to be something of a sisyphean task for Mandelson, despite the looming
deadline. The ACP countries want to retain preferential access to the EU for
products such as sugar and bananas, plus they want more development aid, but
they don't want to liberalize their own tariff barriers; the WTO wants an end
to all preferential arrangements; the EU member states want to protect their
old colonies, but not to spend any more money on aid.
Free Tax-News
RSS Feed