Edinburgh, 22/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - The 10th EU/ACP Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA), which brings together over a hundred members of the European Parliament and their counterparts from the 79 ACP (Africa/Caribbean/Pacific) countries, opened in Edinburgh on 21 November with a unanimous appeal for the EU and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to take account of the vital interests of the least developed countries of the world, which globalisation threatens to marginalise further. On the eve of two major deadlines for the defence of ACP interests- the Agriculture Council of the EU, starting on Tuesday, which will put the finishing touches to the reform of the common market organisation for sugar, and the ministerial conference of the WTO in Hong Kong- both co-presidents of the JPA started off by urging the EU not to sacrifice ACP agricultural raw materials on the altar of the reform and the rules of multilateral trade, by leaving behind the development objectives targeted by the Doha Round. It is worth noting that a resolution on agricultural and mining raw materials (co-rapporteurs Louis Claude Nyassa and Nirij Deva) features on the Assembly's agenda.
Stressing the vital importance of sugar for the economy of the 18 ACP producing countries, Glenys Kinnock (British Labour MEP), co-president of the JPA, called for fairer globalisation, based on commercial justice. "The security and prosperity we seek depend, I believe, on multilateralism with a framework of rules. Our globalisation is a source of prosperity for some and mass poverty for millions of others. Commercial justice is the key to build justice and equity. Hong Kong is the last chance we have to restore the confidence of the ACP countries in the Doha Development Round. The ACPs will, I believe, once again demand recognition that cotton, sugar and bananas are literally matters of life or death for them", she said, adding that she was convinced that Doha would be "a test", as there is "genuine solidarity between the ACPs and the developing countries on this issue". Nobody is challenging the need to reform the sugar regime, but the proposals currently on the table are, in the view of Mrs Kinnock, "quite simply unjust", and "we are not making any progress in the sense of the Doha mandate". She commented that under these proposals, European producers would be able to count on a "generous package" of 1.5 billion EUR in compensation and 4.2 billion for the restructuring of the sector, whereas for the time being, the ACP countries can look forward only to "virtual money" to the tune of just 40 million EUR. "I hope that the agriculture ministers will listen to our concerns", said Mrs Kinnock.
The Jamaican member Sharon Hay Webster, who is co-chairing the JPA for the last time (the baton will be taken up by a member from Gabon), for her part called upon the JPA to urge the Commission and the Council of the EU to take bilateral and multilateral initiatives needed to guarantee stable and fair prices for raw materials. "The protocols (particularly the sugar protocol: Ed) allowed the ACP producing countries to develop, because prices and income were guaranteed. But this is not just a question of price. We are talking about the survival of our economies", she stressed. Ms Webster then urged "all our partners from the European Parliament to do all that is in their power to facilitate the adoption of the financial perspectives of the EU, and thus to provide the necessary resources for the action plan for ACP sugar". The co-president also expressed alarm at the impact of the future REACH legislation (registration, evaluation and limited authorisation of chemical products) on ACP countries which are highly dependent on their exports of mining products to the EU. This future piece of European legislation may be a source of "non-tariff barriers to trade, which would be unacceptable", Ms Webster explained, announcing the contents of an emergency resolution on REACH, to be adopted by the JPA.