Brussels, 17/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - It is out of the question for the Sugar Protocol to be sacrificed to the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) expected to be sealed on 31 December 2007 between the EU and six ACP (African/Caribbean/Pacific) regional sub-groups. The 78 ACP countries, linked to the EU by the Cotonou Agreement, took an oath in this respect on 14 September in Brussels, on the occasion of a meeting of trade ministers devoted to the future of the Sugar Protocol in current talks between the EU and six ACP sub-groups.
The formal declaration adopted to the attention of the EU expresses the determination of all ACP countries - whether or not they produce sugar - to safeguard the main provisions of the Sugar Protocol and the advantages of negotiating a new trade regime compatible with WTO rules. They also wish to safeguard the advantages to be gained from this essential ACP/EU partnership instrument which, as they see it, has shown proof of its effectiveness by vigorously stimulating development of small vulnerable economies.
Behind their rallying together, however, there is a fear. They fear that the European Commission's offer made on 4 April this year to all ACP countries that sign an EPA could prove fatal for ACP sugar producing countries that are not LDC. The Commission's offer would ensure that, from 1 January 2008 on, these signatory countries would have zero duty, zero quota access to the European market for nearly all their products, except for some sensitive products, such as sugar until 2015 and rice (EUROPE 9401). The ACP states refer the EU back to its legal and political obligations and urge it not to denounce the Sugar Protocol but, on the contrary, to ensure that the advantages to be had from this intergovernmental agreement of long date be transferred to EPAs, in line with the promise made to them by Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.
Arvin Boolell, the agri-food industry and fisheries minister for Mauritius and spokesman for the ACP ministerial committee on sugar, told the press that the ACP is united. It forms a common front, he said. They all wish to safeguard their rights in the new situation, he pointed out, saying that the EU has obligations and it is expected to fulfil them. In his view, there is consensus among ACP countries on three points: - the absolute need at the WTO, as in talks with the EU, to build on what has already been achieved and not to destroy it; - the fact that no country should, after talks, be worse off than it is at present; - and market access by ACP countries that do not produce sugar should not be to the detriment of the ACP producer countries. “That is the content of our response to the EU's offer”, he summarised.
All ACP countries agreed on the following principles: - the minimum guaranteed price should not be less than the current reference price throughout the duration of the scheme, i.e. until 2015. It is therefore essential for the EU to state in writing all the measures needed to ensure a balance between market supply and demand; - minimum access quantities should be defined on the basis of the achievement of individual access; - no safeguard measure should be applied to access quantities; - the ACP countries should be able to sell all kinds of sugar from the date when EPAs take effect; - all ACPs undertake to set up contact points among themselves for sharing information on talks in each region; - the financial resources required for flanking measures should be foreseeable, adequate and made available upstream; - and the intra-ACP project on sugar research should follow. The ACP secretariat will submit a report on the state of progress made on all these points.
Lionel Jeffries, Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation, Guyana, and Cariforum spokesman, stresses that the strategy defined by ACPs is based on a dual approach: - 1) a framework agreement (on quantities and prices) with key principles to be respected by all ACP countries, and 2) specific questions to be negotiated at the local level such as transport-related issues. He welcomes the fact that a strategy has been set in place allowing talks on sugar to move forward with the EU, and for agreement on a framework that maintains the advantages linked to the Sugar Protocol. Although no figures have yet been given, the Cariforum spokesman sees as a positive sign the meeting of 12 September between the ACP Sugar ministerial committee's bureau and European Commissioners Mandelson, Fischer Boel and Louis Michel, showing: “an unexpected will to take some of our concerns into account”.
Mahendra Chaundhry, Minister of Finance, National Planning, Public Enterprise and Sugar Industry of Fiji, considers market access is one of the main problems, not only in talks at the WTO in the context of the Doha Development Round but also between the EU and ACP States. All progress in talks on market and development-related issues should make talks move forward at the WTO, he commented. He went on to recall that the ACPs are using as a basis in their demands an “unequivocal written commitment” on the part of Peter Mandelson who, in a letter dated December 2005, had given his assurance that the current advantages would be safeguarded and integrated into the EPAs. (an)