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EU and ACP countries meet to push forward Economic Partnership Agreements

Ministers from the six African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions and EU Commissioners Peter Mandelson and Louis Michel in Brussels will today conclude a recent string of bilateral meetings between the regions and the EU with a joint Ministerial meeting of all seven parties. The meeting will focus on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations between the European Union and the six regional blocks.

The last month has seen a series of bilateral Ministerial meetings between the EU and Western Africa (February 5), Central Africa (February 6), Eastern and Southern Africa (February 28) and the Pacific (March 1). The EU and these regions have agreed on:

• the overriding importance of shaping the EPAs into trade and development agreements that boost and diversify ACP economies.
  
  
• the importance of reaching agreement on the text of new agreements ready for the beginning of 2008, when the WTO waiver protecting existing arrangements will expire.
  
  
• the importance of creating the widest possible market access to the European market for ACP regions, adding to the 97% duty free or reduced-duty access already granted by the EU.

The importance of ensuring that substantial financial resources are made available to assist in the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreements, both from the European Union and individual Member States.

What are EPAs?

Economic Partnership Agreements are the trade and development agreements that the European Union is currently negotiating with the 6 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions. They will replace the trade chapters of the 2000 Cotonou Agreement between the EU and the ACP countries. The exception of these chapters from WTO law will expire in 2008, requiring both parties to have put in place a WTO-compatible alternative. The European Union has committed to ensuring that the EPAs will guarantee both the development focus and the preferential trading terms currently enjoyed by ACP countries, while complying with WTO obligations. The EU is conducting parallel negotiations with six ACP regions: The Caribbean; West Africa; East and Southern Africa, Central Africa, Southern Africa and the Pacific

Fixing a broken system

After more than thirty years of bilateral trade with Europe, the ACP still exports just a few basic commodities, most of which fetch lower prices than they did twenty years ago. The EU's Economic Partnership Agreements are the agreements that the EU is negotiating with the six African Caribbean and Pacific regions with new agreements that are WTO compatible, preserve existing benefits and encourage economic diversification and development. They will change our relationship, from one that offers tariff preferences to one that builds lasting regional and international markets for the ACP.

The EPAs aim at enhanced trade between the EU and the ACP regions only after transition periods of up to a decade or more and will maintain exceptions that reflect particular needs. European Commission studies and analysis show clear economic evidence that regional integration and trade liberalisation between the ACP countries themselves brings clear economic benefits. The EU exports very little into ACP markets, and most agricultural goods from the EU already enter at low or zero tariff rates. It has no mercantilist agenda in these markets.

Financial assistance to support the process

The ACP countries already benefit from substantial assistance through the EU's development funds. On October 16 EU Ministers agreed to prepare a strategy setting out the delivery of €2 billion of further aid to help developing countries put in place new trade policies to boost their growth and help them integrate into global markets. A substantial part of this increase in aid will be specifically targeted to African Caribbean and Pacific countries to help them put in place Economic Partnership Agreements. The money will be available to help countries prepare new trade policies, benefit from trade opportunities and adjust to the changes they bring.

To read the closing statements of recent ACP-EU bilateral meetings please visit
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/index_en.htm

For more information on EPAs visit: http://ec.europa.eu/trade/index_en.htm

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