Kigali, 22/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - A month ahead of the deadline for their signing, the future economic partnership agreements (EPAs) negotiated between the EU and six regions in the ACP group of states (African, Caribbean and Pacific) dominated proceedings of the EU-ACP Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Kigali, Rwanda, that ended on Thursday 22 November. The adoption by proclamation of the Kigali statement, calling for enough time to be granted for EPAs that respect the development aspirations of all ACP states without exception to be negotiated, whether or not the countries are able to sign EPAs before the deadline (see EUROPE 9548), met with a round of applause. This signalled satisfaction among MEPs and ACP parliamentarians at being able to jointly formulate a balanced outline of their concerns about the future trade system based on gradually freeing up trade between unequal economic partners; their demand that no ACP state should find itself worse off than today; and their demand that World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules do not override the spirit and letter of the ACP-EU partnership, as Glenys Kinnock, European Co-President, and Rene Radembino-Coniquet, ACP Co-President, put it.
The importance of the EPAs in the ACP-EU parliamentarians' agendas; ahead of the upcoming EU-Africa summit in Lisbon on 8-9 December, was reflected in the determined address by the president of the Council of ACP Ministers and the soothing speech by EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel, a strong supporter of the EPAs. Michel was warmly thanked by Glenys Kinnock for having travelled to Rwanda on his way back from Geneva where the WTO had been meeting to discuss progress in trade aid for developing countries.
Pointing out that the current progress in the negotiations would not enable any ACP region to consider signing an EPA before the 31 December 2007 deadline, Rene Radembino-Coniquet expressed alarm, at the opening of the meeting, at the uncertainty surrounding the fate of ACP exports to the EU from 1 January 2008 onwards because some regions were considering signing interim deals with the EU on goods to enable trade to continue under the system currently in force, while others are not even able to opt for such an interim measures. Misa Telefoni, President of the ACP Council (who is trade and employment minister in Samoa), said that the talks had not been crowned with success. He recalled the Cotonou pledge of a fair partnership between equal partners rather than a diktat from one party to the other. He said the dignity of both partners had to be respected, noting that none of the negotiations had progressed well. He said the basic hypothesis should be that no ACP state should find itself in a worse situation than before, failing which the negotiations would be a farce. He called for the different levels of development to be taken into consideration, for the EPAs to make a positive contribution to regional integration, for there to be a proper transition to free trade, and for reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy to contribute to sustainable development of the ACP states.
Along with uncertainty surrounding the expiry of the derogation to WTO rules on the Cotonou Agreement's preferential trade scheme on 31 December 2007, there is also the worrying prospect of a possible halting on the same date of funding for development projects in the ACPs if the revised Cotonou Agreement is not ratified on time to enable the Tenth European Development Fund (EDF) to come into force on 1 January 2008. To date, only 30 of the 78 ACP states and 16 of the EU's 27 member states have ratified the revised Cotonou Agreement (signed in 2005) and submitted their ratification laws. Hence the urgent appeal launched by the president of the ACP Council to all delaying states for them to get down to it. The same appeal was launched by the European Commission and the Council of the EU.
Council assures ACP states that it will respect their negotiators
Responding to these concerns, Joao Cravinho, Portugal's development minister and president-in-exercise of the EU's Development Council, said he was delighted to be able to submit to the Joint Parliamentary Assembly the outcome of the EU's recent Development Council (see EUROPE 9547 and 9548), particularly the agreement on a bigger packet of measures, crucial to increase investment and improve trade between the ACPs and their completive positioning. The EPAs should be seen as tools with huge development potential, he said, explaining that he was aware of the problems but the EPAs had to respect international obligations, i.e. the Cotonou Agreement and WTO rules. €2 billion a year in development aid from 2010 onwards, with half going to ACPs to help them make the necessary adjustments, recognition by the Council of the EU of the importance of monitoring the impact of the EPAs and the necessary participation by EU and ACP parliaments in monitoring EPA implementation were, he said, major breakthroughs. It is vital that we keep a careful eye on the outcome, he added. The FTAs must be dealt with in negotiations as a partnership, in full respect of our interlocutors. Some of them have said that these elements have not always been present. The Council of the EU feels that it is essential for us to respect our partners”, said Joao Cravinho.
Speaking on behalf of the European Commission, Louis Michel, “who came to take the pulse of our partnership”, welcomed the vigour of the debate as a “sign of the good health” of the democratic process. He used equally vigorous language of the JPA.
Louis Michel defends FTAs and pleads for changing nature for development aid
Listening to the parliamentarians and their “hopes that the nature of the relationship between the two partners will change”, to make it “more equal and based on the real needs of the beneficiaries of development aid”, and to ensure that “the opinions of the ACP are given a better hearing and taking into account”, the Commissioner said that beyond this vision shared by the EU, and stated in its consensus on development of 2005, “there is action”. He added that the programming of the 10th European Development Fund, the economic partnership agreements and the EU/Africa Summit, “these major components of our partnership go precisely towards this vision to change the nature of the relationship between the EU and the ACP countries from the bottom up”. The objective of the EU/Africa Summit, and indeed that of the FTAs, “is to ensure that the EU and Africa become partners, not only in development, but strategic partners in the global geo-strategic balance”, stressed the Commissioner, who added that “development aid is not an end in itself”. Disappointed by what he described as a controversy “fuelled by misunderstandings”, Louis Michel pointed out that development aid with unilateral trade preferences “has not allowed us to reduce poverty, to trigger development dynamics”; quite the contrary. “It has been characterised by the gradual marginalisation of Africa and the ACPs in general in the context of world trade. Keeping this combination in place is maintaining these disastrous trends. And so on behalf of the fight against poverty and for development, we must change; there is no choice (…) and we have committed to do this”, thundered the Commissioner. Quoting the example of the success of the Asian tigers and, more recently, of China and India, “which have laid emphasis on the economic”, the Commissioner stressed that the objective to be pursued by the EU and the ACPs “is to put development aid at the service of integration into world trade, because it is there that lies the driving force behind growth, the energy which will allow us to strive to eradicate poverty on the scale of hundreds of millions of people”. And this, he added, is what the FTAs, which are necessarily “compatible with WTO rules, promoting regional trade and accompanied by consistent financial support and effective accompaniment”, will do.
In answer to criticism from the parliamentarians, accusing the EU of plunging the ACP countries into a pool of sharks, Louis Michel said: “my ambition is for everyone to become dolphins”. “Try as we might to raise all points of view of civil society and the parliaments, there's nothing doing. You have not the slightest doubt. I hope that the civil societies are listened to”, said Marie Hélène-Aubert (Greens, France), reproaching the Commission for its irrepressible faith in liberalisation. “I have no doubts about the benefits of trade and economy for the sustainable development of the ACP countries”, Mr Michel replied.
Quoting the success of her country “thanks to the Cotonou Agreement, which has allowed us to build up our capacities”, the representative of Mauritius harangued the Commissioner over the fact that with the generalised system of preferences, Mauritius has a lot to lose. Louis Michel acknowledged that Mauritius had indeed been able to “exploit all of the most interesting elements of Cotonou, particularly the sugar protocol, by basing its efforts on economic development”; but with the 10th EDF, the allocation of resources for the reinforcement of capacities is planned, he pledged. “We have a financial memorandum per region identifying all existing means of supporting the FTAs, and a generic matrix for all projects which the ACPs would like to see financed by trade aid”. The Commission also took pains to reassure those of the ACP representatives who voiced concern over access to resources under the 10th EDF for countries not signing an FTA. “There is no formal link between the 10th EDF and the FTAs, it will exist with or without the FTAs”.
What of the application of the GSP to those not signing, will they have to be penalised? “It is not a penalty, it's a law, it is the application of the rules of the WTO”, replied Louis Michel, adding that he believed that there was no other option than to respect multilateral rules. Glenys Kinnock took another view. “The rationality shown by the Joint Parliamentary Assembly by referring to article 37.6 of the Cotonou Agreement lies in the commitment to preserve the ACP countries' means of existence. When, in 2001, the ACPs took corollary political commitments to the derogation they obtained to the rules of the WTO, it was on the assumption that the negotiations for the Doha Development Round would be finished”, she said.
The intensity of the debate on FTAs did not prevent the Assembly from adopting the five resolutions included on its agenda, most notably two emergency resolutions: one on the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo and its implications for the Great Lakes region (EUROPE 9548), the other on natural disasters in the ACP countries. The next Joint Parliamentary Assembly will be held in Ljubljana (Slovenia) from 15 to 20 March. (A.N)