Brussels, 19/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - The trade ministers of the ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) states that are linked to the European Union by the Cotonou Agreement are meeting in Brussels on 19-21 October in order to prepare the position that the ACP Group will take at the 10th WTO ministerial conference in Nairobi, Kenya on 15-18 December. This will be the first time that an ACP state hosts a WTO ministerial conference.
The main challenges of this multilateral negotiation for the ACP countries are issues linked to development, agriculture, non-agricultural market access (NAMA), and arrangements applicable to least developed countries (LDCs) and small and vulnerable economies (SVEs). These issues will therefore be the focus of the statement and strategy that the ACP trade ministers adopt. Discussions are planned with European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström, WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo and Kenya's Minister for Foreign Affairs Amina Mohammed.
“Given that this is the first time that such a conference is being held in an ACP state, the ACP Group considers it very important and intends to implement everything to ensure its success”, said ACP Group Secretary General Patrick Ignatius Gomes on Friday 16 October.
In total, 78 ACP states are linked to the EU by the Cotonou Agreement - a partnership agreement. (Cuba is a member of the ACP Group but has not signed the Cotonou Agreement). The ACP Group comprises 61 WTO member countries, 7 observers, and 11 countries which are neither members of the WTO nor observers. The Caribbean region is currently the only region to implement a full economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the EU in order to liberalise products and services. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)