Brussels, 25/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Extraordinary Council of ACP Ministers, which met for two days in Brussels under the chairmanship of Jayen Cutaree, International Trade and Industry Minister of the Republic of Mauritius, decided on Wednesday to send an urgent missive to the EU Council formally requesting Cuba's participation, as an observer, at ACP/EU trade negotiations to begin on Friday (see EUROPE of 23 and 24 September, p.12). In so doing, the ACP Council plans to forward to its European partners a request made on Wednesday by the Cuban minister from the Ricardo Cabrisas government before his counterparts of the ACP group of countries. We recall that Cuba is invited to take part in the ceremony for opening negotiations but not in the negotiations themselves, as the Union considers that, for this, it must be a signatory of the Cotonou Agreement, which is not Cuba's case. According to sources close to the ACP, the Cuban minister announced to the ACP Council that his country was soon to formally submit its candidature to become signatory of the Cotonou Agreement, stressing the importance that he attaches to the absence of preliminary conditions other than acceptance of the content of the agreement. Ricardo Cabrisas reportedly explained that the withdrawal of Cuba's application in April 2000 was not the result of sudden disinterest for the agreement but an approach made necessary by the prior conditions that the Union wished to impose upon it in compliance with its common position. These conditions were, moreover, confirmed in July by Commissioner Pascal Lamy, on the occasion of bilateral contacts during the summit of ACP Heads of State in Fiji. Mr Cabrisas therefore restated Cuba's interest for signing the Cotonou Agreement and for helping trade negotiations, not only in the interest of its people but also for the balance of the Caribbean group in the context of cooperation with the Union and with the WTO. Speaking on the eve of the Council, Jean-Robert Goulongana, Secretary General of the ACP Group, said discussions must be continued with a view to convincing the Union. He added that it is better for Cuba to follow the negotiations as, at some time or other, it will have to be part of the Cotonou Agreement. In deciding to write to the Europeans to support Cuba's request, the ACP Council puts words into action.
The ACP Council begun, moreover, to discuss the structure of negotiations with the Union. The guidelines set out on Wednesday were as follows.
Negotiations would take place at two levels: at ambassadorial level and ministerial level. The ministerial trade committee would be an assessment body at every level. The ministers have still to specify the role of ambassadors both in Brussels and in Geneva.
Six working groups would be set in place: 1) Market access: rules of origin, customs procedures, trade facilitation, safeguard measures, compatibility with the rules of the WTO, and coverage of products concerned by free trade; 2) agriculture: fisheries agreements and primary products; 3) trade and services; 4) trade-related issues: competition policy, intellectual property rights, standardisation and certification (the Council has still to decide on how appropriate it is to place health and plant health measures, trade and the environment, trade and labour standards in this group of measures); 5) development cooperation: constraints linked to supply, transport, energy, technologies, investment promotion, and measures to face up to adjustment costs); 6) legal issues: legal status of the global agreement and economic partnership agreements, and institutional issues.
The ACP Council continued its work on Thursday, the day before the joint ACP/EU ministerial session.