Brussels, 17/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The first meeting of the joint ACP/EU ministerial trade committee, which took place behind closed doors on 14 May in Brussels, gave rise to a very frank dialogue over the preparations for the trade negotiation between the two parties. The ACP part was represented by the trade ministers from 18 ACP countries that form the ACP ministerial committee (three countries per group sub-region). Pascal Lamy, Commissioner responsible for trade issues a represented the Europeans as well as a representative from the Swedish Presidency and the ambassadors from the Member States of the Union. Below, according to a source close to the ACP, are the themes broached and the results obtained:
Composition and role of committee: Antony Hilton, Jamaican Minister for External Trade and President of the ACP ministerial committee, expressed the hope of the ACP ministers to work, within the joint ministerial committee, with their European counterparts. The two parties insisted on the fact that the joint ministerial committee should pilot and not lead the future negotiations.
Preparations: Mr Hilton: 1) informed the Europeans of the results of the works by the ACP ministerial committee in Johannesburg; 2) underlined that the delay experienced by the Commission in the making available of the EUR 20 million announced to help the ACP countries to prepare for the negotiations had already shaken the ACP action programmes, and risked leading to the postponing of several vital and imminent meetings such as the first private sector forum planned for 25 to 28 June, the first forum of civil society ACP (3-5 July), and endanger the launching of negotiations in September 2002; c) added that the ACP have take provisions to try and find amongst themselves the financing needed for the carrying out of impact studies prior to determining the entities for regional integration that will negotiate with the EU. Pascal Lamy took note of these remarks and underlined that all the provisions would be taken for the programme to begin as of the month of June. He added that the aim of the future negotiation was to create an ACP/EU economic area largely integrated and exit the attached aspect of the ACP/EU trade relationship to promote an integration of the ACP into world Trade. These negotiation will, according to him, lead to two types of agreement: free trade agreements between the Union and a large regional entity (such as EDEAO) or customs unions with countries belonging to a regional sub-groups (such as the WAEMU), the first hypothesis being for the Union, more desirable than the second.
The next meeting will take place in October 2001 in Kenya.