Brussels, 29 March 2007 (Agence Europe) - UNIDO, the specialist United Nations agency for industrial development, which is behind an initiative to safeguard the cotton network in Africa, has been a partner to the European Commission for a year in bringing the industrial capacities of the ACP (Africa/Caribbean/Pacific) nations up to standard as part of the economic partnership agreements (EPAs) currently negotiated between the EU and six ACP sub-regions.
The UNIDO initiative for the development of the value chain for cotton, textile and clothing manufacturing (CTC) aims to increase the contribution of the cotton sector to gross domestic product, employment and exports using various means: improving the competitiveness of the supply capacity of the CTC value chain; better product conformity with international standards; strengthening connectivity or the access of products to national, regional and international markets. This “response to Doha”, which is part of development assistance for cotton, was taken up by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in a report by the cotton committee and presented by the Director General of UNIDO, Kandeh Yumkella, at a high-level WTO seminar in Geneva on 15-16 March. Following this meeting, UNIDO presented its initiative to a specialist workshop of the ACP states group in Brussels on 28 March.
“We are trying to get the support of the maximum number of contributors. We already have the support of the African Commission. The EU supports us. We are hoping for an agreement with the ACP group on a programme to put this initiative into practice, so that the ACP countries can export products with added value”, the press was told by François d'Adeski, UNIDO representative in Brussels. UNIDO opened an office in Brussels in June last year because cooperation with the European Commission has intensified. “UNIDO is one of the best-placed agencies for putting in place high-quality infrastructures, modernisation and bringing enterprises up to standard for economic partnership agreements. It puts its expertise to the service of consistency of regional markets, giving priority wherever possible to regional standards. Our aim is to help developing and emerging countries to industrialise, and process local raw materials with which they have a comparative advantage”, Mr D'Adeski explained.
However, cotton is the raw material par excellence with which the countries of West Africa have a comparative advantage but do not take full advantage of this, partly because of the competition with subsidies from rich countries, but also because of a lack of added value for exports. UNIDO was approached in 2000 by the African presidents of NEPAD (the new partnership for Africa's development) to provide assistance to NEPAD in the manufacturing sector, and it received a mandate in 2003 from the 16 countries of West Africa and from the ACP group to promote cotton processing in West Africa, where 95% of the cotton exported was exported in raw material form, Mr d'Adeski said by way of a reminder of the history of the dossier. “Exports of raw cotton are our problem. Emphasis is increasingly placed on the processing aspect”, acknowledged Mr Bassong from the Secretariat General of the ACP group.
Lamine Dhaoui, an adviser to the Director General of UNIDO and the man behind the methodology of bringing industry up to standard applied in Portugal prior to its accession to the EU, then in Tunisia (his country of origin), pointed out that “textiles and clothing manufacture are the first basis of industrialisation because it is a winning chain. The Asian countries and the island of Mauritius have shown this”. UNIDO has been working on the cotton initiative for two years in close cooperation with the WTO, other specialist UN agencies (FAO, UNCTAD, ILO) and the EU - an initiative which complements the EU's support programmes for cotton and all raw materials, he points out. The low rate of cotton processing in the African producer countries (less than 5% on average, and less than 2% in the UEMOA countries, compared to 100% in countries such as Turkey, Pakistan, China and India), and the very low rate of use of cotton show that the African producer countries have “a very large reserve of productivity”. In Tunisia the textile sector is the 50% sector: it provides 50% of employment, 50% of exports and 50% of industrial added value, even though the country imports all of its cotton. This paradox highlights the need to identify “niches in which simple and non-costly technologies could be developed” in West and Central Africa, Mr Dhaoui believes. One need only look at the example of small production units in India which produce mosquito nets from cotton (70% of which are sold on the Indian market), or medical bandages, using relatively cheap technologies (costing 15 000 to 20 000 dollars). UNIDO is currently conducting a comparative analysis of strategies and policies implemented in India, Egypt and Turkey - three major cotton-producing countries - the results of which will be shared with the ACP Secretariat by the end of April. (an)