Brussels, 30/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - In giving its assent to two Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) already signed between the EU and ACP countries or regions - the full EPA with the Cariforum and the interim EPA with Côte d'Ivoire (see EUROPE 9869) - the European Parliament made it possible for the first two agreements which need only to be ratified to be definitively adopted to come into force early. For the six other EPAs negotiation on which will continue beyond this current Parliament, MEPs set out, in six resolutions, a list of generic wishes providing a common denominator for all EPAs, and their specific wishes forming adjustment variables for each agreement. Their aim is that, for every progressive trade liberalisation agreement, trade should be used to help develop the ACP countries and that each EPA respects the characteristics and specific interests of each ACP region. It will be up to the next Parliament to give its assent when these EPAs are signed by the EU and the ACP regions.
Common Denominator: - Parliament recommends a flexible, tailored to needs and pragmatic approach in negotiations and encourages negotiators to conclude talks in the course of this year are planned; - Parliament notes that WTO rules do not require and do not forbid agreement on services or on the Singapore questions. It calls, then, for the liberalisation of services, investment, public procurement, intellectual property rights, competition, trade facilitation, data protection, movement of capital and fiscal administration to be negotiated only if both parties want to conduct negotiations. It says it is convinced that full EPAs should complement agreement on the Doha development programme and not replace it for the ACP countries; - Parliament agues for the amounts of aid promised by the EU (€2 billion per year until 2010) be rapidly determined and awarded to each ACP region. These resources should be additional and not a simple re-allocation of European development funding; - Parliament calls on ACP countries to speed up the liberalisation process and encourages the extension of these reforms beyond trade in goods, in order to increase, too, liberalisation in the trade in services: - it calls on negotiators to ensure there is a mechanism guaranteeing transparent management of natural resources because these are the key to development and to highlight best practice so that ACP countries signing EPAs can derive maximum benefit from these resources; - it encourages further reduction of customs tariffs between developing countries and regional groups, which today represent between 15% and 20% of commercial value, in order to continue to support south-south trade, economic growth and regional integration; - it wants EPAs to be fully examined at the latest five years after they are signed (socio-economic impact) so that amendment of the arrangements and implementation can be carried out; - Parliament wants monitoring of application of EPAs to be coordinated by a Parliamentary committee involving the members of the international trade and development committees, which would actively cooperate with the Joint ACP-EU Parliamentary Assembly.
Adjustment variables: Interim EPA between the EU and Ghana: Parliament says that this EPA must under no circumstances endanger the cohesion of ECOWAS (which contains 12 of the 15 least developed countries) or weaken its regional integration; interim EPA with the Pacific: Parliament says that any full EPA should have a roadmap, approved by all political groups, ahead of democratic elections in Fiji, and calls for the agreement not to be an obstacle to future agreements between the Pacific region and its closest trading partners (Australia and New Zealand); - Interim EPA with the Southern African Development Community (SADC): Parliament calls on the Commission to show flexibility in its response to the serious concerns of Angola, Namibia and South Africa on issues such as the most favoured nations clause, and export taxes and protection of nascent industries. The regional EPA must be negotiated without setting any unrealistic deadline to allow the SADC countries to re-negotiate arrangements on contentious points which they would like to amend or remove; - Interim EPA with the Eastern and Southern African Group (ESA); Parliament calls on the Commission not to exert too much pressure on the region to accept liberalisation and to take account of the position of the region's parliaments. It expresses its grave concern for the current situation in Zimbabwe. It encourages the parties to conclude negotiations on an EPA if the mutual advantages of such an agreement are clearly seen by both parties and calls on the Council to submit the dossier to it as soon as possible; - Interim EPA with countries of the East Africa common market: Parliament wants the ratification procedure to be carried out swiftly so that the signatory ACP countries can profit from this interim agreement without undue delay - this interim agreement is the first to have been signed and has the same liberalisation timetable for all members of the regional group: - Interim EPA with Central Africa: Parliament calls for account to be taken of the range of economic and social situations of the 8 states six of which are landlocked and five are least developed countries (LDCs). (A.N./transl.rt)