Brussels, 22/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - On the home straight before their, expected imminent, conclusion, the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) that have been negotiated with difficulty between the European Union and six ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) geographical groups will dominate the Council of ACP ministers meeting in Brussels on 22-24 May. The aim of these negotiations is to set up, between the EU and the ACP regions, a new trade regime which complies with WTO rules, to encourage the development of the ACP countries, and to assist their gradual integration into the world economy.
The main task of this 85th ACP Council session, chaired by Lesotho, is to prepare the position which ACP ministers will adopt at their joint ACP-EU ministerial session in Brussels on 25 May. A consolidated position from the six negotiating regions (through SADC for Southern Africa, the CEMAC for Central Africa, the ECOWAS for West Africa, the ESA for East and Southern Africa, and also the Caribbean and the Pacific) is expected to be reached before this decisive deadline.
The joint meeting will certainly be decisive because time is running out (exemption from WTO rules for the unilateral system of trade preferences, which the ACP countries currently enjoy under the terms of the Cotonou Agreement, will expire on 1 January 2008) and because this will the first opportunity of bringing together the two parties after the informal session at the EU Development Council in Petersberg in March, which invited some 30 ACP ministers to clarify to European ministers which should be the EPA development dimension of most importance to the ACP countries (see EUROPE 9386). In the meantime, EU development ministers have discussed among themselves the European Commission's trade offer which seeks to ensure that, from 1 January 2008, all ACP countries which negotiate an EPA have duty-free access to the European market and quotas for virtually all their products, apart from sugar and rice, for which transition periods are planned (and bananas, for which a transition period could be considered, at the request of member states - see EUROPE 9427).
ACP ministerial committees on bananas, sugar, cotton and development funding, which met on 20-21 May, will report to the ACP Council on the progress of their discussions.
In addition, the Committee of ACP Ambassadors will inform the Council of what actions have been taken since their last session (in Khartoum in December 2006) and the Council will give guidelines for the reform of the ACP Secretariat started in 2000 to improve its efficiency. (an)