“No plan B”, says EU Commissioner Louis Michel
As time ticks away to the due date of the European Partnership Agreements (EPAs), the free trade agreements for six ACP regions, the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) in Wiesbaden, June 25–28, drew out sharp differences among participants on what they will mean for ACP nations.
Many ACP Parliamentarians are worried that timetables for liberalisation of goods and services are still unknown. On the one hand they fear a rush to sign by year-end and on the other, should the EPAs not be in place by then, a loss of the standing trade preferences contained in the Cotonou Agreement when the World Trade Organisation (WTO) waiver for these expires on 31December 2007.
With timetables for opening of markets and accompanying aid packages still unknown, Parliamentarian Boyce Sebetela (Botswana) said he did not know what to tell his Parliament about how an EPA will affect Southern Africa. For Spanish MEP (Socialist), Josep Borrell, “hasty liberalisation cuts off the possibility of a country planting roots to join the world economy”.
It was up to Peter Thompson, Trade Director at the European Commission, to allay fears. He highlighted his view of all the pluses of the future accords. He told the JPA that under the EU’s April 2007 proposals ACP goods from all six regions, except for rice and sugar, would enter the EU duty-free and allow the ACPs to “determine their own future free of the WTO waiver.”
Parliamentarian Nita Deerpalsing (Mauritius) feared her country’s loss of a guaranteed quota and price for sugar in the EU market. Thompson said the new sugar proposals would distribute the benefits a lot more evenly since other non-Least Developed Countries (LDCs), like the Dominican Republic, and other LDCs would now be able to export sugar to the 27-member state EU bloc.
Autumn panic?
Come November there will be panic, said MEP Carl Schylter (Green, Sweden) regarding the lack of progress in EPA talks. He said small farmers would be hardest hit under the new accord. This led to a philosophical spat with EU Commissioner for Development, Louis Michel, on the fundamentals of development policy.
“When you open the market, you will benefit unless you think that global self-sufficiency allows you to survive,” argued Michel. “If this challenge isn’t met then perhaps one should continue to be involved in charity work.”
He said, “There is no plan B. One per cent growth in trade in developing countries would match all the aid given,” he told the JPA. Michel also hinted that the Commission may unveil additional funds to those already in the pipeline to help underpin the EPAs.
To reassure ACP states, Germany’s Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, said that a close eye would be kept on the texts of the respective EPAs to ensure they are in line with development policy goals. A revision mechanism in the agreements is foreseen, she said.
Some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were indignant, enacting sketches on the lawns of the Kurhaus, the venue for the JPA, which suggested that African countries were being coerced into signing the EPAs. In one of many NGO anti-EPA papers handed out during the week, Alexandra Burmann of Germany’s ‘Bread for the World’, describes how imports of cheap chicken and tomatoes are already pushing local producers out of their own market in West Africa. Bidding industries in ACP countries will suffer as EU rivals will be able to cherry pick services like banking telecommunications, energy and water services. Studies show that ACP exports will raise little should the EU open its markets, as these are already mostly open for ACP products, argues the Burmann paper. Liberalisation of services and the so-called ‘Singapore’ issues such as the investment, competition policy and public procurement will also hit ACPs the hardest.
‘My Fair Trade World’
Banana hair and chocolate belly buttons: just two of the photos taken by children to promote EU-wide fair trade. These children entered into a competition, ‘My Fair Trade World’, organised by the ‘Network of European World Shops’. The winner of the first prize, announced by Germany’s Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Heidemarie Wieczoreck-Zeul, during the JPA, was 8 year-old Levy Hanekamp from Dronten, the Netherlands.
