EU-ACP: Working together on the Road to Cancun

Summary: August 1, 2003: EU-ACP: Working together on the Road to Cancun (Brussels)

EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and Trade Ministers from Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACPs) met on 31 July in Brussels to prepare the upcoming WTO Ministerial meeting which will take place in Cancun (Mexico) in September as well as to discuss the ongoing negotiations for EU-ACP Economic Partnership Agreements. With less than a month to go before Cancun, both parties agreed to work together to ensure the right balance between market opening and rules, taking into account the particular circumstances of ACP countries, especially the poorest countries and landlocked and island countries. Pascal Lamy said: "Both the EU and ACP countries consider the development dimension as the key element of the Doha Agenda. Whether on agriculture, on industrial tariffs or on access to medicines we must ensure that we respond to the concerns and expectations of developing countries".

Pascal Lamy was invited to the 6th Meeting of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Trade Ministers for an exchange of views on the ongoing trade talks under the WTO Doha Development Agenda (DDA), the EU-ACP Economic Partnership Agreements and the forthcoming World Summit on the Information Society.

On the DDA, both parties agreed to:

Work together to ensure that the DDA maintains a fair and important level of preferences for industrial and agricultural products for ACP countries and that trade opening takes place in a gradual and flexible manner;
Call for an urgent solution to the issue of access to medicines for countries with no manufacturing capacity in accordance with the Doha mandate;
Work together to establish rules giving developing countries special and differential treatment to help them better integrate into the world trading system;
Support accession to the WTO of Least Developed Countries, most of which are ACP countries;
Underline the importance of trade related assistance and capacity building measures to allow developing countries to better benefit from international trade.

Both parties have also examined the ongoing negotiations for Economic and Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between ACP regions and the EU. Since the launch of the trade talks in September 2002, a lot of preparatory work has been carried out, examining at all-ACP level the main issues to be addressed in the regional EPAs. This will allow the launch of negotiations with specific ACP regions after the WTO Ministerial in Cancun. EPAs have as a major objective regional integration between ACP countries.

During the meeting Pascal Lamy presented "Trade.com", the EU's 50 million € trade assistance program aimed at enhancing the capacity of ACP countries to negotiate and implement the results of trade agreements in the DAA and in the EPAs with the EU.

The Trade Commissioner also addressed the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), to be held from 10-12 December 2003 in Geneva. This summit should deliver concrete actions on information and communication technology notably for developing countries. EPAs can address some of the regulatory and regional issues at stake for the ACP.

In the margins of this event Pascal Lamy met with a number of ACP trade Ministers to address country and region specific issues in more depth. He also used the opportunity offered by the presence of Rubens Ricupero, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), to discuss preparations for the UNCTAD XI Conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which will take place between 13-18 June 2004.

For more information:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/issues/bilateral/regions/acp/index_en.htm

Ref: EC03-213EN
EU source: European Commission
UN forum:
Date: 1/8/2003

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