Brussels, 22/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 18 July, Europeans and Central-Americans concluded the fourth negotiations session for the signing of an association agreement that will link the European Union to the Community of Central American Countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) (EUROPE 9663). A lot of progress has been made on the political chapters and cooperation. In trade, significant efforts still have to be made on the incorporation of sensitive agricultural products like coffee and bananas and respect for rules of origin. Maintaining this high level of ambition, partners are hoping to complete an agreement in 2009.
Hector Gonzalez Urrutia, the Salvador ambassador to the EU, speaking on behalf of all Central American countries said, “we can see light at the end of the tunnel”. He welcomed the “substantial progress” in political and cooperation areas and cited areas such as, “human rights, modernisation of the state, rule of law and justice” and “social development and cultural cooperation”, to a lesser extent
He pointed out that this was the first real experience of negotiations at a regional level for six of the Central American countries and praised the ability of these countries to speak with a “single voice”.
In charge of negotiations on trade at the European Commission, Rupert Schlegelmilch, reiterated the European goal of reaching an agreement that went beyond simple consolidation of the system of generalised preferences (SGP+). For this, a serious boost will be needed to facilitate market access and examine sensitive products for the Europeans. The recent Commission announcement of support for a proposal on reducing EU imposed customs duty on banana imports was well received by Central Americans (EUROPE 9706). The question of rules of origin is posing difficulties to the Central Americans and has to be thrashed out. Europe is afraid that Chinese T-shirts transited through Central America and arriving on the European market will benefit from provisions in the future EU/Central America agreement Products affected by rules of origin have more to do with industrial products than agricultural ones. (M.B./trans/rh)