Brussels, 20/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - At the end of an exchange of views with Commissioners Louis Michel (development) and Peter Mandelson (trade), the Council adopted conclusions on Friday that were likely to lead to obstacles being overcome to the signing of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), the expected successor to the preferential trade regime (“Cotonou Agreement”) that has linked the European Union and six ACP regions (four African regions, the Caribbean and Pacific) for 30 years and which expires on 31 December. At the end of the Council, Luis Amado, the Portuguese foreign minister stressed that “the Council has made progress towards an enhanced European Union capacity to carry out negotiations in this final phase, while underlining the importance of the EPA as a development tool”.
Adoption of these conclusions has, nonetheless, not proved problem-free. The discussions were heated. Some delegations were concerned about the fate of ACP countries that are not among the least advanced countries, and which have a lot to lose if the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) were applied to them on 1 January 2008 (Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands and Scandinavian countries) and others, Spain and France, specifically, which are concerned about what will happen to Community bananas that they want to see protected in a similar way to sugar and rice from ACP competition. In an effort to reassure Spain and France, the Commission agreed to launch automatic investigations (as part of bilateral safeguard procedures and included in the EPA) into ACP bananas if they increase by more than 25% of the average over the previous three years. In a joint declaration, Spain and France said that they would reserve the right to automatically request such a procedure if the “Community bananas” subsidiary encountered difficulties linked to banana imports into the Community. They took note of the Commission's intention to swiftly examine a possible demand in this connection. Swedish, British and Danish delegations said that in the spirit of compromise, they had finally accepted transition periods for rice and sugar, while emphasising that they continued to disapprove of the introduction of safeguard measures. The Swedish delegation said that it regretted that the Commission had given in to such a commitment. Mr Amado explained that “today we succeeded in reuniting 27 points of view. There are 27 of us and it is normal for us not to have a homogenous point of view. We got a common position in a single document, which will enhance the Commission's negotiating capacity in the final stage…this was our objective and we got there”.
Signing the EPAs is a big challenge to the ACP countries because, in the absence of agreement at the end of the year, ACP states that are not part of the least advanced countries, will have no other alternative but the General System of Preferences, an extension of the WTO rules or an amendment to the more utopian GSP+ rules, as Commissioner Mandelson had previously pointed out (EUROPE 9538). The cut-off date expires on 31 December and the signing of the EPA is still far from being finalised. No agreement has so far been concluded with any region. In the knowledge that it was now utopian to conclude complete agreements with whole regions, the Commission is hoping that they can at least sign interim agreements on goods before the end of the year with regions that want to. This could even involve certain individual countries under a review clause for a definitive framework agreement that would enter into force before the end of 2008. Negotiations appear to be at the point of completion for the Caribbean region, which is the most advanced in the process and which is moving towards the signing of an interim agreement on products for the Pacific region. On the other hand, negotiations are currently in an impasse for the four African regions, including southern Africa. The Council was informed by the Commission about progress in negotiations, and on Friday said that it was no longer possible to conclude complete agreements with the six regions by the end of the year. However; it did state that it was possible to conclude partial or even incomplete agreements with these regions. Amado affirmed that “countries are sovereign nations and if they do not want to be part of an EPA, we cannot make them…this reduces our margin for manoeuvre”. He also said that some African countries wanted greater integration with their neighbours, while others did not want any. The Council will return to this delicate question in December, explained Mr Amado. (I.L.)