Summary: April 19, 2004: Speech by Pascal Lamy, EU Trade Commissioner. Opening of the negotiations for the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the Caribbean Forum of ACP Staates (CARIFORUM) and the European Union on 16 April 2004 (Kingston, Jamaica)
Honourable Prime Minister,
Honourable Ministers,
Ambassadors,
Representatives of Regional Organisations,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased and honoured to speak at this ceremony, which opens negotiations for an Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the 15 Caribbean ACP countries.
I would like to join my colleague Poul Nielson in thanking the Government of Jamaica and CARIFORUM for offering their services and facilities for the smooth and successful organisation of this important event.
Some might argue that I am devoting my time and energy to the wrong event. That there is another show in town that is much more important. No, I am not talking about the Doha Development Agenda, although I will say a few words about the DDA later. It is the Jamaican Carnival that is currently capturing people's attention. I may have very little time to savour this great party here myself, but I reckon that if we can bring the same sort of energy and enthusiasm to bear on our trade
negotiations, that then we are in for a good time!
Of course, I am here to open EPA negotiations, an important event in itself. Beyond the event itself, however, there is the process of which it forms part. It is about this EPA process that I would like to say a few words.
The EPA process does not begin today, it started long ago. One may say it started with the Cotonou Agreement. In Cotonou we agreed to put our trade cooperation on a new footing, with the aim of promoting your integration into the world economy, and thereby contributing to sustainable development and poverty eradication in your countries. I believe there was real vision there. Part of the Cotonou vision was also to enable ACP countries "to manage the challenges of globalisation and to adapt
progressively to new conditions of international trade".
This process of trying to adapt to economic change and bring about sustainable development is not new to the Caribbean region. It is a process you started yourselves long before Cotonou was signed. Every time you took a step towards further regional integration, there was the conviction that this was necessary to strengthen the region, through enhanced cooperation, competitiveness and political clout. The Caribbean Single Market and Economy is based on this need to pull together for greater
strength. The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States is based on the same recognition. And CARICOM has already sought to broaden its base by including Haiti and Suriname, and concluding a free trade agreement with the Dominican Republic.
I am not oblivious to the pitfalls and shortcomings that may occur in regional integration. This is not always a linear process. All of the countries involved have their own domestic questions and agendas and these may sometimes hide the regional integration initiatives from view. But I find these initiatives important because all of them aim at enhancing cooperation, competitiveness and political clout for the sake of development.
Well, the Cotonou Agreement has taken the same comprehensive approach to trade and development, and EPAs are part and parcel of this. Trade and economic cooperation, of which EPAs are the flagship, seeks to build on your regional integration initiatives. In doing so, the EPA can assist in locking in the achievements of those initiatives and enhancing their implementation.
The EPA underwrites your own efforts towards a stable and reliable environment for sustainable trade and investment in a larger Caribbean market. The EPA can actually deepen the benefits of such efforts by introducing a powerful but benign third party, namely the EU.
Of course this has to be done wisely, taking account of the different needs and levels of development of the parties involved. This is why the Cotonou Agreement already commits us to asymmetrical liberalisation, improved access to the EU market and capacity-building in your countries. Let me briefly go into these commitments. Asymmetrical liberalisation means differences in product coverage and the pace and timing of liberalisation on both sides. Improved market access is not just an issue of
tariffs and quotas but also of non-tariff measures. And capacity is required in both the public and private sectors to make the best use of the opportunities provided.
While the questions of market access, including elements of reciprocity, and the degree of asymmetry will be addressed later in the negotiations, capacity-building is of immediate concern. We are already investing in it and the EU will continue to do so. But what we do not have is a mandate to negotiate development finance as part of EPAs. However, let's not loose sight of the fact that development assistance is already an established part of the Cotonou Agreement. The point is that we are
committed to making continued progress on this, in parallel with the negotiations, and taking into account the needs arising from the negotiations.
The other quasi-immediate concern is regional integration. For the EPA to build on and reinforce regional integration, we need to understand where your regional integration initiatives are going. Of course, it is up to you to decide where these initiatives are going and discuss this with us. Only then can the EPA provide maximum value-added. This is exactly why we together envisage starting negotiations by focusing on the plans, programmes and prospects for regional integration. The Joint Work
Programme and Schedule for EPA negotiations will lay down this approach.
I have often said that regional integration and EPAs are not means in themselves. They are instruments for achieving the objective of sustainable development. In a way they are a launching pad for effective beneficial integration into the world economy. At the same time, world economy should not mean jungle. Our bi-regional relations have to be embedded in a multilateral trading system, which will protect our privileged relationship and enable it to flourish. A multilateral system that allows
us to have an open relationship in which we can build on increased competitiveness to enhance trade and economic relations with other partners as well.
Talking about the multilateral trading system there is no escaping some words about the Doha Development Agenda. Where do we stand on the DDA? Clearly, the DDA process is in better shape now. The will of WTO members to re-engage has been clear since the unanimous support, of all WTO members, for re-launching the negotiations.
After Cancun, there was some doubt whether all WTO members supported the DDA and if the negotiations would continue. In fairness to the Caribbean, even though you have been quite critical, notably at Cancun, you have never resorted to a negative attitude towards the DDA as such. You have realised the development potential of these negotiations and are committed to making the most of it. However, the DDA will only be fully back on track when real discussions on substance among WTO members have
re-started. We now need to direct all our efforts towards this goal. If not, we risk that the process stalls once more.
So we hope that G-20 countries and G-90 will engage on substance soon on all issues. Of course in this context the commitment of the Caribbean and Africa groups is vital. For the negotiations to reflect your priorities, it is important that you engage positively and constructively and take responsibility. The Caribbean Group is an influential player within the G90; it needs to come forward with some new elements and a positive agenda. We can help.
In a nutshell, the EC could defend the view that the G90 be treated where possible in a similar manner to Least-Developed Countries in the DDA modalities. On that basis, we encourage G90 members to put forward a G90 platform for the DDA negotiating modalities that would include new benefits or flexibilities. Acceptance of these flexibilities by all WTO Members would demonstrate that G90 concerns are recognised, and this would be the key to G90 partners signing up to the modalities' framework by
the summer. This would also allow us to take swift action benefiting small economies such as yours.
The best definition at this stage of the negotiations for the G90 would include, in addition to LDCs, any small economy, landlocked developing country or commodity dependent country, provided they are "particularly weak or vulnerable". At a later stage efforts could be made to give this more precision but we should not let the best be the enemy of the good. What is important now is to agree modalities with sufficient flexibility for G90 countries.
I said I would only say a few words about the DDA, and this brings me back to the importance of what we are doing in the bilateral scene. For the EU, shouldn't all the energy be focussed on the multilateral scene and the DDA, or on other regional negotiations in which we have significant market access, such as the one with Mercosur?
I disagree with this notion. First, because the EPA negotiations are about pushing to another level our "special relationship", one which we do not have with other parts of the world, whatever their importance in the global economy. Second, because the Caribbean nations must have a special place within the relations we will develop with the Western Hemisphere as a whole. Third, because it is important to send a signal that enlargement of the EU will not weaken our long standing support for this
region within the ACP group. Fourth, because what we are doing under Cotonou is not fundamentally different from the processes that are at play in other parts of the world, including in our relations with central or Latin America: we are supporting through our bilateral arrangements regional integration and the building up of markets, in order to harness the process of globalisation.
In this respect, I look forward to seeing you again at the EU-Latin America and Caribbean Summit in Guadalajara in May, because our contribution to this Summit and the main focus of our discussions there will be precisely what we are doing today with the EPA: regional integration.
I will conclude on this thought, and I am pleased to leave the floor to the region again, and to our host the Prime Minister, thanking him once more for hosting and contributing to the launch of our negotiations.
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