ACP countries demand equitable trading policies from EU, WTO
By Yu Xinchao, Wang Yongkang
MAPUTO, June 24, 2004 (Xinhua) — Delegates attending the just-ended fourth summit of heads of state and government of ACP group have demanded that equitable trading policies be established between ACP countries and the European Union (EU) as well as the World Trade Organization ( WTO).
Mozambican President Joaquim Albert Chissano said during the summit that the ongoing negotiations between the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) and the EU for the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are necessary, because the non-reciprocal arrangements of the Lome Conventions are no longer consistent with new multilateral trade rules.
However, Chissano said at the summit, held here on June 23-24, that the cooperation between ACP with the EU should not only be continued but be strengthened on the basis of equality and frankness, and that new development in the international situationand the enlargement of the EU should not lead to damages to such cooperation.
Meanwhile, Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage Davila has criticized the free trade agreements between the ACP group and thedeveloped countries, and called for reverting to the preferential agreements.
“The free trade agreements are a trap,” Davila said in his speech released during the summit.
“The developed nations are keeping their subsidies that represent over 800 million dollars a day just in food supplies; they are setting environmental, health and other barriers; they own the capital and patents, and offer a full elimination of tariffs, so that we can trade on a false equal footing,” he said.
The ACP countries and the EU have since 2000 been negotiating EPAs, aiming at establishing “new World Trade Organization compatible trading arrangements removing progressively barriers oftrade” between the two groups.
But, the Cuban vice president said that “their (the developed countries) concern for the poor is a lie. The existing international economic order destroys sovereignties and prevents development. In only 35 years, the imposed neoliberal globalization has increased by over 50 folds the differences in income between the richest 20 percent who live in developed countries and the poorest 20 percent who live in the Third World.”
Some delegates even said that negotiations between ACP and the EU for the EPAs have been going slow due to diverse views on the two parties.
ACP Secretary General Jean-Robert Goulongana said “we are of the view that EPAs must be instrument for development, the EU agree with this view. But what is to be put into the concept, thatis where sometimes we have diverse views.”
According to the secretary general, unlike the Lome or Cotonou conventions, which give ACP countries preferential treatment in access to EU market, EPAs would provide for quota and duty-free access to the ACP market for EU products and services.
But for ACP countries, the principle of reciprocity is a principle that has yet to be accepted by developing countries. Controversies around this had led to the collapse of the WTO ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico, Goulongana said.
“What WTO rules? Are we talking about the present WTO rules?” asked Goulongana, adding that the present WTO rules are not favorable to developing countries and have to be changed in futuretalks.
Fortunately, most of the ACP countries have now been aware of the trading issues they are facing with the developed countries and are trying to effectively resolve them.
The Cuban vice president said that the ACP countries “should revert to preferential agreements and formulas that offset the profound and growing inequalities” and the Mozambican president said that enhanced intra-ACP cooperation will given ACP more strength and put it in a better position when it negotiates with developed countries for partnership and strives to maintain peace,security and stability in the region.
Founded in 1975 on the basis of the Lome Convention, ACP is a grouping of 79 countries, with a total population of 742 million, or 12 percent of the world population. It is one of the largest blocs of developing countries in the world, with over 30 of the world’s 49 least developed countries as its members.
The Maputo summit, with the theme “Together, Shaping Our Future”, attracted delegations and representatives from all the 79 ACP member countries, including some heads of state. Enditem