The Courier

Photos of the “My Fair Trade World” competition.

© Debra Percival

Most of the ACP states that have signed the agreement with the EU were once colonies of, that’s to say ruled by, one of the now 27 EU countries like the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal and Belgium.

Over past 50 years, ACP countries have become independent. But the EU wanted to keep hold of some of its special trade links and be friends with its old colonies and help them to grow. To do this, the EU decided on various ‘Conventions’ with all ACP states. The current ‘Cotonou Convention’ was signed in the capital of Benin in West Africa in 2000.

‘Cotonou’ will last until 2020. It groups some of the richest countries in the world like Finland where a person on average earns US$29,251 a year* and some of the poorest such as Sierra Leone, where a person makes just US$561. This means that abolishing poverty is the goal of Cotonou.

Towards this, the EU gives aid which is called the European Development Fund (EDF). Each EU member state puts an amount into this money pot. ‘Cotonou’ also has a trade part to make sure that most of the produce and goods sold by ACP States can get into the EU market without tariffs – payments which can make imported things more expensive to purchase and stops shoppers from buying them.

Fresh roses, sweet bananas

You can buy fresh and colourful Kenyan roses – fairly cheaply – in shop shelves in the EU any time of year. This is mainly because there aren’t any tariffs on Kenyan roses under Cotonou. Kenya now supplies EU countries with half its roses compared to about a quarter 10 years ago! And those sweet short bananas which fit neatly into school lunch packs are shipped in under Cotonou’s tariff-free trade arrangements for the product. It means a living wage for farmers in the Caribbean’s Windward Islands and other African nations where they are grown.

At the moment, ACP and EU States are talking about how Cotonou can improve trade between the ACP and EU more and at a faster pace. The plan is for free trade agreements, or ‘Economic Partnership Agreements’, with the 6 regions of the ACP group; the Caribbean, Pacific, West Africa, East Africa, Southern and Central Africa from 1 January 2008.

The EU aid money pot for ACPs or 9th EDF (2002–2007), at the moment distributes €13.5 billion to all ACP countries over five years. The money goes to individual aid projects in ACP countries like building hospitals, schools, roads and airports to help countries develop more quickly and trade more easily. It also provides emergency food, shelter and medical aid when there are natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods or conflicts, as is the case in Darfur. There is €22.7 billion in the new 10th EDF (2008–2013).

Many other smaller projects get money under the EDF such as training programmes and trade exhibitions. It doesn’t all go to national governments but also local governments and civil society such as non-governmental organisations. The EU doesn’t decide alone how it wants to spend the money. It discusses this with its ACP partners. For this reason, the EU has many offices in ACP states.

And then there are regular meetings in Brussels when ACP and EU Ministers get together to discuss what’s making them mad about Cotonou, what’s okay and how to do things better.They talk about political topics, too, like how to end the fighting in Darfur and human rights. Often they don’t agree.

It’s all about having respect for your best buddy, listening and helping him or her to advance the best way you can.

* United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) statistics for 2004.