Brussels, 29/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - Turning a deaf ear to the raft of criticisms of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), which are judged to have potentially disastrous consequences for African economies (see EUROPE 9589 and 9578), EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson is keeping the pressure up. He says the four EPAs which remain to be agreed with four regions of Africa and the Pacific region of the ACP states (African, Caribbean and Pacific), are the best option for lifting ACPs out of poverty and the only option acceptable to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Addressing the European Parliament's Development Committee on Monday 28 January, he said there was a strong development argument for negotiating on the questions of investment and services trade in full EPA, which pave the way for free trade.
'Too many poor people in the ACP have been trapped in poverty while others in the developing world have moved on. We all agree we need to amend this situation and I believe that in December, we and the ACP did something very significant about it,' said the Commissioner. Peter Mandelson was delighted that a full EPA has been signed with the Caribbean and interim deals have been initialled with other regions and individual countries. He added: 'I am pleased to announce that we have ensured that 99.5% of all ACP trade within the EU is now free of all duties and quotas. We have avoided the threat of trade disruption that so many feared in the run-up to the Dec. 31 deadline and, in doing so, we have also met our WTO obligations.' He stressed the flexible liberalisation that protects growing ACP industries, exclusions that protect farmers and better rules of origin that can attract investors.
Commissioner Mandelson said that the interim agreements were a significant achievement in difficult circumstances, but the work must go on to sign full EPAs. He urges the ACP governments to formally sign the interim agreements agreed in December so they can be deposited at the WTO, and ACP traders can have legal certainty of the unlimited access to the European market created by the EPAs. The Commissioner welcomed the prospect of returning to the table to transform the interim agreements into full agreements in 2008. He mentioned the full EPA with the Caribbean which 'puts our trade relationship on a new footing, based not on dependence on preferences along but on helping the region integrate and take further steps into the global economy,' as something to be proud of. (A.N.)