Brussels, 12/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - Co-operation and trade negotiations with the EU, as well as the uncertainties linked to ongoing agricultural negotiations within the WTO were at the heart of the work of the ministers of the 78 ACP States, at a two-day Council meeting in Brussels. Commenting on Wednesday evening on the decisions and many resolutions adopted, the session's chair, Jaya Krishna Cuttare (Minister of Industry and International Trade of Mauritius), spoke to the press about the Council's concerns regarding the threat weighing within the WTO on trade preferences that ACP States enjoy under exemptions secured in Doha - be it the Sugar Protocol under attack from Australia and Brazil, or preferential access for tuna, threatened, he said, by a "Union proposal aimed at compressing customs duties for tinned tuna, in favour of Thailand and the Philippines, with, in certain cases, the aim of reducing them to zero". The resolution over tuna underpins that the level of development in Thailand and the Philippines and their great fisheries capacity - immeasurable compared to some of the least advanced ACP countries - enables them to easily satisfy the rules of origin. Should they be granted a preference, such a move would totally unhinge ACP tuna industries and lead to their disappearance. "This Union initiative is very serious for the industrialisation of our countries, and incomprehensible at a time when the EU speaks of reducing poverty and given that we fought together in Doha to secure an exemption", added the President of the ACO Council. ACP ministers thus call on the EU to ensure that no harmful decision for the ACP countries be taken by EU Member States and that the Union's offers in the framework of the Doha Agenda do not impede efforts at development in ACP countries. The Council has instructed the ACP representation bureau in Geneva and ACP ambassadors to follow this question closely.
As for the attacks by Brazil and Australia on the sugar scheme, the ACP President considers that "they may have very serious consequences on the economy of ACP countries very dependent on sugar". Satisfied with the "exemplary solidarity within the group to defend what we have gained", Mr. Cuttaree said: "We shall continue to lobby the EU and these two countries for this issue not to go before a WTO panel. The Council resolution on the subject calls on the EU to abide by and honour the legal obligation and political commitment set out in the Cotonou Agreement and ensure that the weight of its reform of is common agricultural policy and its liberalisation initiatives is not displaced to the detriment of the vulnerable economies of ACP sugar producers.".
Asked about Council discussions over the cancellation of the last ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, in Brussels, Mr. Cuttaree referred to a consensus on the importance of this institution but also to the "cavalier attitude of the European Parliament" towards the members of the ACP as a whole. "A delegation from the Assembly's bureau will be sent to Zimbabwe. The ACP Secretariat is currently working on the composition and remit of this mission, that Zimbabwe is prepared to receive, as long as it does not simply focus on human rights, but also on land reform", he added.
Regarding Cuba, duly represented in this Council session as full-fledged member of the ACP group, Mr. Cuttaree confirmed having been informed in writing of the EU Council decision to grant Cuba the status of informal observer for the first phase of negotiations over ACP/EU economic partnership agreements. He also referred to the address by the Cuban Minister Ricardo Cabrisas confirming Cuba's decision to the ACP Council of shortly resubmitting its formal request to join the Cotonou agreement.
In a resolution on financing development, the Council again stresses that the burden of the debt continues to be unbearable and an impediment to major reforms, economic growth and development in ACP States. He welcomed the initiative aimed at lightening the debt of the very indebted poor countries, but remains concerned by the limited number of countries eligible under this initiative. Whence, he instantly calls on the Commission to propose greater, larger, faster lightening of the debt, identifying the way the additional resources to that of the Edf (European Development Fund) could, in the long term, be mobilised to support this initiative.
Furthermore, the Council notes that despite efforts made to increase the participation of ACP nationals in the selection and adjudication process of the financial markets by the Edf, market shares allocated to ACP nationasl remain well below those of their European counterparts. He thus urges the Commission and national and regional organisers to guarantee that the application of new rules relating to services, supplies and work contracts financed by the EDF in the selection and contract awarding procedure of markets provides maximum possibilities for ACP companies, suppliers and consultants.
In response to the suggestion made by European Commissioner Poul Nielson to allocate EDF leftovers to the financing of horizontal projects so that, in 2004, these dormant reserves are not used by the enlarged Union as an alibi for drastically reducing resources of the 10th EDF, the ACP States replied that the slowness of payments was not only caused by the ACP but also by the Commission's unwieldy red tape. "There is the political will to set up a mechanism, within the mixed institutions, to speed up outgoing payments", President Cuttaree told the press.
On the subject of the reform of foreign aid management, the ACP Council reaffirms its concerns about the Commission's decision to close delegations or to reduce the impact they have in some ACP countries. These decisions are considered as running counter to the central aim of the Cotonou Agreement, all the more as they coincide with the opening of delegations in non-ACP areas and, according to ACP ministers, translate the "Commission's wish to be present in regions that hold a political, economic and commercial interest for the Union".
Decisions adopted by the Council concern: - the mandate entrusted to the Committee of Ambassadors to define and adopt the ACP communication and public relations strategy for the negotiation of economic partnership agreements. The aim of this communication is to rally support for the positions defended in the ACP group and improve the image and the visibility of the group; - the promotion of ACP cultures: the first meeting of the ACP Culture Ministers will be held in Senegal in March 2003, and the first ACP culture festival will be held in Haiti during summer 2004.