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The acp-eu-trade.org newsletter -- No. 38/April 2010
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In this issue:
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I. Trade Negotiations Insights - Overview
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II. News: Highlights of the month
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III. Selection from the acp-eu-trade.org Library
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IV. Resources from Recent and on Upcoming Events
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Dear readers,
Welcome to our April issue of the acp-eu-trade.org newsletter!
Below you will an overview of the latest issues of Trade Negotiation Insights, a collection of press articles published during the last month and a selection of recently added documents in the acp-eu-trade.org library. As usual, we also provide some resources on recent and upcoming events relevant to ACP-EU trade relations.
ACP-EU stakeholders are encouraged to participate in the various services provided via this website with the aim to exchange relevant information, build up trade negotiating capacity and facilitate networking activities. We therefore invite our readers to take an active role in www.acp-eu-trade.org by:
• Registering on-line as a trade and development expert to help mobilise the best expertise in ACP-EU trade and development matters and give interested parties easier access to information on relevant internationally recognized experts or consultants;
• Submitting relevant background and policy documents, news and links that will enrich the ACP-EU trade debate;
• Subscribing to this monthly newsletter as well as other partners’ to be kept informed of latest developments in the ACP-EU trade realm;
• Sharing your views on the current ACP-EU Trade debate and providing feedback on the relevance and future focus areas of www.acp-eu-trade.org
We appreciate any feedback on this newsletter and look forward to your reactions. You may send your comments to acpeutrade@ecdpm.org.
Enjoy your reading!
Editors: Takesh Luckho (tlu@ecdpm.org) and Melissa Dalleau (md@ecdpm.org)
I. Trade Negotiations Insights Vol.9, No.3
The April issue of Trade Negotiations Insights (TNI), a joint monthly publication by ICTSD and ECDPM, is available online at: www.ictsd.org/tni/index.htm and www.acp-eu-trade.org/tni.
Trade Negotiations Insights, Vol.9, No.3, April 2010
· What happened to the Cariforum-EU EPA? (D.Jessop)
· Editorial & News and publications In brief
· EPA fisheries talks: An opportunity to tackle SPS measures (M.Doherty)
· Innovation and technology transfer: Prospects under the EU-ACP EPAs (R.L. Okediji)
· Potential impacts of alternative policy reform scenarios on the world cotton market (M. Jales)
· An African voice to fill African mouths: Improving the international food-aid regime (H. Zunckel)
· WTO Roundup
· EPA Negotiations Update
· Calendar and resources
Trade Negotiations Insights, Vol.9, No.3, April 2010
· Qu’en est-il de l’APE Cariforum-UE ? (D. Jessop)
· Éditorial et Nouvelles et publications En bref
· Négociations sur la pêche dans le cadre des APE: l’opportunité de discuter des mesures SPS (M. Doherty)
· Innovation et transfert de technologie : perspectives dans le cadre des APE UE-ACP (R. L. Okediji)
· Marché mondial du coton et réforme des politiques: impacts potentiels de scénarios alternatifs (M. Jales)
· Une voix africaine pour nourrir des bouches africaines: améliorer le régime international de l’aide alimentaire (H. Zunckel)
· Aperçu sur l'OMC
· Point sur les négociations APE
· Calendrier et publications
** All-ACP **
* ACP Group Assistant Secretary Generals Named.
ACP Secretariat, 22 April 2010.
* Volcano ash crisis highlights impact of trade disruption for ACP countries
European Commission, EPA News, 23 April 2010
Over the last week, the Icelandic volcano ash cloud crisis caused major disruption in air traffic, not only for passenger transport but also for freight carriers. 19% of EU imports are carried by air. In a globalised economy that relies heavily on 'just-in-time' deliveries, trade disruptions can hamper developing countries' economies and perishable goods are the most affected. In fact, topping the list of the most heavily affected import sectors is cut flowers from ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia, and fresh agro-food products from South Africa, all benefiting from preferential access in the EU. The disruption indirectly highlighted the degree of interdependence of markets, for which the EU is committed to negotiating and concluding EPAs that enhance such preferential regimes to promote development.
* [Interview] "EPAs Will Undermine Democracy in Africa", Patricia Handley interviews Yash Tandon, Ugandan political economist (Part 2)
IPS, 8 April 2010
The current course of the talks on economic partnership agreements (EPAs) is particularly destructive for low-income African countries and may contract democratic space in such countries even further. So says Yash Tandon, Ugandan political economist and senior advisor to the South Centre intergovernmental think tank on developing countries in Geneva, Switzerland. "I would say that small countries through the EPAs will lose all their independence and sovereignty. Political independence that they fought for 20, 30 years ago will be compromised," Tandon told IPS during a visit to South Africa.
-> Read Part 1 of the Interview: "Impose an Embargo on the EPA Talks"
* [All ACP/EAC] EU’s response to critics of EPAs
theCitizen, 8 April 2010.
Following is the EU’s response to questions by The Citizen on criticisms levelled against Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).
The European Commission has followed with great interest the recent media debate on EPAs. We are pleased to read that the topic is gaining renewed attention and further to the e-mail from the Citizen newspaper to the EU Delegation on Tuesday 23 March, we are pleased to be invited to add our voice to the discussion. In our view EPAs have nothing to do with colonialism. Indeed, quite the reverse – they are concerned with promoting the regional integration process, and notably supporting measures taken by regional groupings themselves to open up trade with their neighbours and the wider international community.
-> Read also the criticisms that fed the debate:
- EPAs: The wrong development model for Africa Part 1/3, theCitizen, 31 March 2010
- EPAs: Wrong development model Part 3/3, theCitizen, 2 April 2010
** Caribbean **
* [Comment] Europe and Caribbean Rum
David Jessop, CaribWorldNews, 20 April 2010
Over the last decade or so, starting with rum in 1997, the Caribbean has seen its special trade arrangements with Europe eroded as the EU has sought something close to trade reciprocity with the ACP for either mercantile, philosophical or legal reasons. The consequence has been that Europe has offered greater market opportunity to an ever wider range of developing nations, has sought the removal of its own and others trade distorting subsidies and has negotiated aggressively to open new markets to the advantage of its manufacturers and suppliers. For the Caribbean this process is far from over and it is likely that bananas, sugar, rum and rice, will continue to see the arrangements that they have further weakened. Rum continues to fight a battle against the unjust way in which it is being treated even as the banana industry remains unhappy with the EU`s willingness to make further concessions to Latin American producers; while sugar is next in line for significant change.
-> See also: Who will save Caribbean rum? Sir Ronald Sanders, BBC Caribbean, 7 April 2010
* Mathurin defends EPA
The Gleaner, 13 April 2010
A Top CARICOM trade official is strongly defending the 2008 Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union amid recent suggestions that the agreement is not worth the paper it is written on. "I don't know if anyone can really say with any conviction that the EPA is not working," said Ambassador Gail Mathurin, director general of the CARICOM Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN). The agreement is still in the early stages of implementation, and CARICOM has a three-year grace period before it has to start lowering barriers to European imports. "On that basis, given that we are still in the early stages of the EPA, I have some difficulty with an assessment which says it is not working," said the ambassador, a Jamaican who was named as head of the OTN last year, formerly the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery.
-> See also: Caribbean-Regional trade official optimistic about future of rum, CARICOM News Network, 15 April 2010 ; Local rum producers must prepare for global competition, Jewel Brathwaite, The Barbados Advocate, Monday, 12 April 2010 and 70 Million euro pull-out not a done deal, says ambassador, The Barbados Advocate, 12 April 2010
* Caribbean Questions EU Development Pledges
Peter Richards, IPS News, 8 April 2010
When Caribbean leaders sit across the table from their European counterparts at a May summit in Spain, high on their agenda will be the problems experienced by banana and sugar producers in gaining meaningful access to the European market. Following a meeting in Dominica on Mar. 12, Caribbean leaders noted that the market access concessions on bananas and rum, granted by Europe in pending free trade agreements with Colombia and Peru, will pose serious challenges for Caribbean countries. However, former University of the West Indies professor Vaughan Lewis, who chaired a working group on the Governance of the 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom), told IPS that, "We were put on warning that the access for these commodities would change." "I myself do not believe that we have ourselves worked out what the infrastructural requirement for creating new mechanisms of economic growth should be. We are still depending in a sense on negotiating assistance for the old agricultural products, sugar rice, bananas and so on," he said.
* [Comment] After a year of the EPA with Europe: What benefits for the Caribbean?
Sir R. Sanders, Caribbeannetnews.com, 16 April 2010
The European Commission (EC) will be holding a symposium on April 22 and 23 on the year-old Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union (EU) collectively and 15 Caribbean countries individually. There is, as yet, no indication that Caribbean governments or the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat will be holding a similar exercise. It has to be assumed that each of the governments that signed the EPA has long established units both to implement its terms and to monitor its effects on individual economies. Therefore, relevant authorities in each of the Caribbean states as well as the Secretariat of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) should be able to provide a list of the benefits that have been secured from the EU under the EPA.
* [Dominican Republic] Dominican exports to Europe climb to €595.8M
DominicanToday, 13 April 2010
Although the country’s exports fell 23% last year as a result of the global economic crisis, Dominican exports to Europe, albeit in a smaller scale compared with 2007, rose by €53.7 million compared with 2008, resulting from the tariff facilities within the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), signed with the European Union (the EU).
* [off the track] CARICOM Secretariat in High Gear
CARICOM Press release, 16 April 2010
The CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown has been a hive of activities this week as Secretary-General, Edwin Carrington hosted delegations from the Caribbean and further afield for a number of critical meetings ranging from intra-CARICOM affairs to CARICOM cooperation with international development partners. […] On Thursday 15 April, the Secretariat hosted the Inaugural Meeting of the Programme Steering Committee (PSC) of the 9th European Development Fund (EDF) Caribbean Integration Support Programme, which is composed of the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize (the TROIKA of the CARIFORUM Council) and the Secretary-General. […] The PSC has been set up to provide policy guidance and support for the implementation of the 9th EDF programme in CARIFORUM.
** West Africa **
* West Africa and EU Make Modest Progress in Trade Talks
Bridges Weekly Trade News, ICTSD, 31 March 2010
At the meeting on 22-26 March in Brussels, ECOWAS tabled a new market access offer that would open about 70 percent of their tariff lines and volume of trade over a 25-year period. EU officials have acknowledged the proposal but they have also indicated that they would like to see the tariffs brought down more quickly. Meanwhile, the EU and ECOWAS remain at loggerheads over a controversial Most Favoured Nation (MFN) provision. The EU has pushed for an MFN provision in the EPA that would grant it the same treatment that ECOWAS countries provide to “major trading partners” in other FTAs. In Brussels, the EU proposed a list of 22 countries that each account for more than 1 percent of world trade. The list includes major emerging economies such as China, India, Brazil and Indonesia. ECOWAS is uneasy with the proposed provision, fearing it will inhibit West African countries from pursuing agreements with major developing countries. Under the EU proposal, for instance, any trade preferences granted between a West African country and China would also have to be passed on the EU. ECOWAS wants to limit the MFN clause to developed countries.
* [Interview] Why Poorest African Countries Should Not Sign the EPAs – Isolda Agazzi interviews Dr El Hadji Diouf, expert on the economic partnership agreements (Part 2)
IPS, 9 April 2010
It is a "million dollar question" why African least developed countries (LDCs) would enter into economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with the EU as what remains of especially their agricultural markets will be overrun with subsidised European produce.Dr El Hadji Diouf made this statement in the second part of IPS's interview with him on whether the EPA negotiations between West Africa and the EU should be suspended, as proposed by Ablassé Ouedraogo, former minister of foreign affairs of Burkina Faso and former deputy director of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
-> Read the first part of this interview: EPAs Are Still Not Developmental, Despite EU Promises,IPS, 25 March 2010
* [off the track/Trade Facilitation] ECOWAS Urged to Establish Regional Shipping Lines
Ifeyinwa Obi, allAfrica.com, 21 April 2010
The Ghanaian Minister of Transport, Mr. Mike Hammah has called on maritime authorities in Africa to collaborate and co-operate in order to benefit effectively from international trade. He noted that the collapse of National Shipping Lines such as the Black Star Line and Nigerian National Shipping Line were clear indications of the need to pool resources and experiences to enable African countries meet the maritime challenges. He said that African countries could pool resources for the establishment of Regional Shipping Lines as proposed by Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for the West African sub-region to cement their collaboration.
* [Benin] Thanks to compliance with EU standards, Benin is now a permanent supplier of fishery products
European Commission, 31 March 2010
Mr. Gnitassoun Dénagnon, Head of Monitoring and Control of Fishing Products and Industry, Directorate of Fisheries – Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, in Benin, [talks] about his experience with the EPA. Benin has used the TRACES system to certify fishery products intended for the EU since September 2009.
** ESA **
* ESA-EC Establish Common Understanding
COMESA Secretariat, 14 April 2010
An Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) Ministerial delegation this week held an informal meeting with EC Economic Partnerships Agreements (EPAs) negotiations. […]The main objective of this joint informal Ministerial meeting was to establish common understanding between ESA Ministers and the new EC Commissioner for Trade – Mr Karel de Gucht on all issues under negotiation and in particular to seek EC flexibility on the contentious issues on market access and more development support as well as to provide the necessary political guidance for technical level negotiations. This is necessary to give new impetus to the negotiations. The two parties agreed on the way forward.
-> See Also: Commissioner De Gucht meets Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) Trade Ministers, EPA Flash News, European Commission, 16 April 2010
* EAC-EU Trade Talks Hit a Snag
Catherine Riungu, The East African, 5 April 2010
Reports that the East African Community is close to signing an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union may be a mirage. Sources close to the high level negotiations that took place in Brussels recently indicate that although most of the contentious clauses have been agreed upon, hopes that the trade ministers would meet the EU Trade Commissioner this month for the final leg have been dashed after the meeting was pushed to May. "The European Commission has new office bearers who have requested for more time to familiarise themselves with the technical issues surrounding the EPA negotiations, meaning we have to wait longer," a member of the team who requested anonymity said, adding "we are back to the drawing board." He explained that it was unlikely that the negotiations could be concluded this year, considering that most regional governments are also going into elections. “We could find ourselves with new trade ministers, who too will ask for time to get acquainted with the EPAs and the cycle will continue," he said.
-> See for background context and previous article on this topic: EAC-EU trade deal set for December, Ivan Mugisha, The New Times via AllAfrica.com, 29 March 2010
*[Zambia] CTPD urges govt to halt EPAs talks
Chiwoyu Sinyangwe, The Post Online, 26 April 2010
[…] In an interview, CTPD executive director Saviour Mwambwa said the government should halt further negotiations or defer the negotiations until the local industries and interests were pushed to a level they could participate in the EPAs competitively. Mwambwa said CTPD believed that EU trade policies through EPAs should not remove the right of the Zambian government to strategically deploy measures to safeguard its internal interests.[…] Mwambwa said EC was using the EPAs to crowd out other regions from Africa’s natural resources and also counter Chinese influence on the continent.
* [Regional Integration] Borderless EAC trade far from being realised
Catherine Riungu, The East African, 19 April 2010
Despite the realisation of both the Customs Union and the Common Market protocols that have catapulted the region to levels of integration comparable only to the European Union, the promised free movement of people, goods and services within the East African Community (EAC) remains a mirage. It is nearly four months since the region “removed” the last of the “transition” tariff bands under the Customs Union, allowing Kenya’s goods to trade freely in EAC partner states after the expiry of the five-year transition period. In July, a further three months away, it will usher in the long-awaited Common Market. Despite their duty-free status, Kenyan exports to the other EAC member states still reportedly spend weeks at border posts undergoing “inspection” – especially at Namanga on the Tanzania border and to a certain extent at Busia-Malaba on the Uganda border. Tanzanian Customs officials say they have received no directive from the government to waive import duty.
* [Regional Integration] Africa lags behind on integration projects
Nam News Network, Harare, 09 April 2010
A meeting of ministers from eight countries that form the North-South Corridor (NSC) initiative was held in Harare, Zimbabwe, this week to discuss ways of strengthening the organisation amid concerns that it has implemented only one project since its establishment two years ago. The NSC is a joint initiative of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East Africa Community (EAC), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), aimed at improving regional integration through trade and infrastructure. Addressing the ministers and senior government officials, Zimbabwe’s Regional Integration and International Cooperation Minister Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga noted on Wednesday that the Chirundu One Stop Border Post (OSBP) between Zimbabwe and Zambia, commissioned in December last year, is the only project implemented to date. “That is an indication of problems that we are having structurally or administratively,” she said.
-> See also, Barriers to regional blocs confine Kenyan firms to East Africa
Kimani Mwaura, Business Daily, 31 March 2010 and, DRC, Zambia plan one-stop border post to boost trade, The Bostwana Gazette, 18 April 2010
** SADC **
* SACU to speak in one tone on EPA
Ndjebela Toivo, New Era, 31 March 2010.
After months of varying views on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), member states of the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) have finally taken a “harmonised” position on the matter when the next round of negotiations with the European Commission (EC) begins. This was agreed recently in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the Special Customs Union council of ministers’ meeting chaired by Namibian Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila. At the meeting, usually attended by the SACU ministers of finance or trade, the member states agreed to “regroup” before meeting the European Commission in the next negotiating round.
* SACU At 100 Eyes Transformation
Brigitte Weidlich, the Namibian, 23 April 2010
The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) will be transformed from a customs union into a body to deepen regional integration in southern Africa beyond the existing five member states and to "serve as building block of an ever closer community" among the peoples of Southern Africa. The decision was taken yesterday (22 April) by the heads of state and government of the five member countries: Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa. A joint communiqué to declare that a new vision and mission had been defined for Sacu was signed by President Hifikepunye Pohamba and the visiting heads of state King Mswati III of Swaziland, President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, Botswana President Ian Khama and Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili of Lesotho. They held a closed-door meeting yesterday morning and then proceeded to the site where the new Sacu headquarters will be built, in order to sign the communiqué during a ceremony that also marked the start of the centenary celebrations of the world's oldest customs union. Although the communiqué stopped short of declaring that Sacu might become the envisaged larger customs body for the 15-member state Southern African Development Community (SADC), this might well be so, a well-placed source told The Namibian.[…] President Hifikepunye Pohamba said yesterday that all five Sacu states had underscored unity and vowed to hold a common position when it would come to trade negotiations with external trading partners.
-> See also Zuma urges Sacu to tackle EPA negotiations as united front, Christy van der Merwe, Creamer Media’s Engineering News, 22 April 2010; and 100 years and rebirth of SACU, Desie Heita, New Era, 23 April 2010
* [off the track] Signing of Trade Agreements in Brazil
SADC Press Release, 31 March 2010
The Southern African Development Community (SADC), represented by its Executive Secretary, Dr Tomaz Augusto Salomão, signed a cooperation framework Agreement with the Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil and SADC on 29 March 2010 in Brasilia, Brazil.[…]. The priority areas of cooperation include, inter alia, infrastructure development with special emphasis on energy, food security, information and communication technology, and science and technology.
* [Mozambique] The opening of markets should increase the quality of products for exports but also for regional markets
European Commission, 15 April 2010
Dr Mouzinho Nicol, President of the Consumer Protection Association of Mozambique, foresees positive impacts from the EU consumer protection policies and how they can be reflected in the EPA.
** Central Africa **
* Réévaluation du programme de travail des réformes du commerce des services en Afrique Centrale(in french only)
ILEAP, 26 March 2010
Le Conseil des Ministres de l’Afrique Centrale en charge des négociations APE s’est réuni le 22 février 2010 à Douala pour examiner le rapport du Comité Régional de Coordination des négociations de l’APE et les orientations sur la préparation de l’APE avec l’UE. Les Ministres, conscients de l’importance du commerce des services dans les économies de la région, ont instruit les négociateurs d’inclure dans l’APE les dispositions y afférentes. Ils ont demandé aux Négociateurs de revisiter la feuille de route des négociations afin de baliser les négociations.[…][Un atelier sur le sujet a ainsi été tenu du 24 au 26 Mars]. L’atelier visait au renforcement du consensus autour d’une feuille de route pouvant permettre le suivi de la mise en œuvre des réformes et des négociations sur le commerce des services.
-> See our “Event Section” for Reports and Presentations
* [Regional Integration] Central African Integration Limited by Domestic Differences
Scott Stearns, Voanews.com, 19 April 2010
Central African leaders have high hopes for a new regional parliament. But the lack of fiscal coordination and differences in immigration law continue to make the group less competitive than the neighboring Economic Community of West African States. Heads of state from the Central Africa Economic and Monetary Community inaugurated their new parliament with a gala opening last week. The $30 million, Chinese-built assembly in Equatorial Guinea gives a new home and new mandate to a body that began as an inter-parliamentary commission 10 years ago. Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic and Chad each have five delegates to oversee the functioning and budget of a CEMAC Commission charged with promoting democracy and accelerating regional integration.
* [Angola] France to Increase Business Volume
Angola Press via allAfrica.com, 20 April 2010
The chargé d'affaires of the French Embassy in Angola, Christian Mareschal, said this Tuesday in the city of Lubango, southern Huila province, that his country wishes to increase the volume of businesses with Angola, taking into account the opportunities existing in both countries.
** Pacific **
* Forum Trade Ministers meet in the FSM
Pacific Island Forum Secretariat, Press Release, 26 April 2010
Boosting trade and investment to help increase growth and development in Pacific island countries will be the top priority for Forum Trade Ministers when they meet in Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia this week. At their two-day meeting to be held 29 - 30 April, Ministers will discuss developments in the on-going PACER Plus trade negotiations as well as examine ways to increase exports and investment through the region’s network of Pacific Islands Trade and Investment Commissions. […]Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Tuiloma Neroni Slade said this week’s meeting was an important opportunity for Ministers to consider and map out strategies to foster trade and development in the region.
* PACER-Plus trade talk: All pace, no plus
Matongi Tonga online, 9 April 2010
Negotiations for the proposed free trade agreement between Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, known as PACER-Plus, are expected to start at the end of April. For the Pacific, it's a case of ready or not. The scheduled Pacific Islands Forum Trade Ministers Meeting to be held in Port Vila, Vanuatu from April 27 - 29 will have on its agenda the framework for a trade agreement between the countries. Despite all the noise made by the Australian and New Zealand governments about 'development' being the 'plus' part of the agreement, it seems by not postponing the meeting until the Pacific Islands are in a position to engage properly, their focus is on putting the pace into PACER-Plus.
* [Fiji] Competency Deadline for Fishing Industry
fijivillage.com, 20 April 2010
Stakeholders in the fishing industry have less than five months to meet all competency requirements if fish exports from Fiji are to gain access to the European Union market. Listed as one of the priorities for the fisheries sector is for stakeholders to commit to making necessary infrastructure improvements to meet the requirements of the EU market. Permanent Secretary for Fisheries Commander Villiame Naupoto said signs on the ground are positive and they hope some fish suppliers will get the go ahead to export fish to the EU.
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III. Selection from the acp-eu-trade.org Library
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* Geneva Agreement on Trade in Bananas
Council of the European Union, Brussels, 26 April 2010
* Draft Council Decision on the position to be adopted by the European Union within the ACP-EU Council of Ministers concerning the accession of the Republic of South Africa to the revised ACP-EU Partnership Agreement - Adoption
Council of the European Union, Brussels, 14 April 2010 // based on Interinstitutional File: 2010/0053 (NLE)
* Draft Council Conclusions - EPA Development Programme (PAPED) – Adoption
Council of the European Union, Brussels, 26 April 2010
* Building on Global Europe: The Future EU Trade Agenda
Commissioner Karel de Gucht’s Speech, European Commission, 15 April 2010
* Overview of FTA and other Trade Negotiations
DG Trade Overview, FTA Negotiations, Updated 14 April 2010
* Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument
Council of the European Union, Brussels, 12 April 2010
* World Economic Outlook 2010 - Rebalancing Growth
IMF Report, Washington D.C, April 2010
“The World Economic Outlook (WEO) presents the IMF staff's analysis and projections of economic developments at the global level, in major country groups (classified by region, stage of development, etc.), and in many individual countries. It focuses on major economic policy issues as well as on the analysis of economic developments and prospects.”
* IMF Regional Economic Outlook 2010: Sub Saharan Africa
IMF Report, Washington D.C, April 2010
The economic slowdown in sub-Saharan Africa looks set to be mercifully brief. Recovery is now under way across the region. The region’s relative resilience during this global recession, compared with previous global downturns, owes much to the health of its economies and the strengthening of policy frameworks in the run-up to the crisis. Countercyclical macroeconomic policies played an important role, with nearly two-thirds of those sub-Saharan Africa countries that experienced a slowdown in 2009 increasing government spending to buttress economic activity. However, progress toward the Millennium Development Goals receded. Middle-income and oil-exporting countries were hit hardest by the collapse in world trade and commodity markets; the region’s low-income countries escaped fairly lightly. Looking ahead, fiscal policies in sub-Saharan Africa generally need to be refocused toward medium-term objectives, macroeconomic policy buffers rebuilt, and financial systems strengthened. Published biannually in May and October.
* Economic Partnership Agreements and Food Security
Alan Matthews, IIIS Discussion Paper No. 319, March 2010
There has been much debate about the possible negative effects of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) for food security in ACP signatories. This paper investigates whether the commitments undertaken by ACP governments when they signed EPAs are a threat to food security. […]The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 discusses the links between trade and food security to establish a framework to evaluate the potential food security impact of EPAs. Section 3 describes the food security situation in ACP countries in greater detail, to emphasise the magnitude of the task facing these countries in this dimension of their development efforts. Section 4 discusses how the ACP countries’ market access offer may impact on food security concerns, first, through an examination of their tariff liberalisation schedules and also through a textual analysis of the relevant provisions in the Agreements. Section 5 concludes by asking how best the EPAs might be used as an instrument to promote food security in ACP countries.
* Regional Agricultural Trade for Economic Development and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa
Christoph Pannhausen and Bianca Untied, GTZ Study/Report, January 2010.
In times of high food prices, shortages in natural resources and stagnating multilateral trading regimes regional approaches for economic development and food security are increasingly determining the agenda of both developing countries and multi- and bilateral development cooperation. This study, conducted by the GTZ sector project “Agricultural Trade” on behalf of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development(BMZ), analyses the beneficial aspects of regional approaches for economic development and food security, describes briefly the most important current African and international political efforts to strengthen regional cooperation, discusses important impeding factors to regional trade, and summarises recommendations for development cooperation. Results mainly base upon desk study research and interviews with major regional and national stakeholders in East, West and Southern Africa. The annexes cover results of three fact-finding-missions to Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with major regional trade flows, regional trade related institutions, barriers to trade and possible intervention areas for development cooperation in East, West and Southern Africa.
* Making Trade Preferences Work for the Poorest Countries
Kimberly Ann Elliott, Center for Global Development Brief, April 2010
Trade preference programs can reduce poverty and promote prosperity and stability in the world’s poorest countries, but they often fall short of their intended goals. They regularly exclude commodities that poor countries can produce competitively, such as agricultural products and clothing, and many programs must be frequently renewed, creating uncertainty and discouraging investment. Extending comprehensive, usable, and predictable quota-free market access to all least developed countries could provide a critical boost to the world’s poorest people with only trivial effects on preference-giving countries.
* Europe’s Preferential Trade Agreements: Status, Content and Implications
Raymond J. Ahearn, Congressional Research Service Report, 22 March 2010
Preferential trade agreements (PTAs) comprise a variety of unilateral, bilateral, or regional arrangements, which favor member parties over non-members by extending tariff and other non-tariff preferences. PTAs are excepted under certain circumstances from the non-discrimination clause of the multilateral world trading system. The World Trade Organization (WTO) permits countries to enter into PTAs under certain conditions, but the criteria are very elastic, and the examination by the WTO as to their consistency with WTO rules has not been rigorous. This report explores these intersecting issues in three parts. The first section discusses the status and primary motivations of the EU’s PTAs currently in place or under negotiation. The second compares the content and trade coverage of Europe’s PTAs to U.S. PTAs. A third section assesses the implications of the EU’s PTA program for the multilateral trading system and U.S. trade policy. A concluding section evaluates future directions for Europe’s PTA policy.
* Aid for Trade and Climate Change Financing Mechanisms: Best Practices and Lessons Learned for LDCs and SVEs in Africa
V. Ancharaz and R. Sultan, ICTSD Study Paper No. 10, January 2010
This report focuses on links between climate change adaptation measures undertaken by African least developed countries (LDCs) and small and vulnerable economies (SVEs) and their impact on trade. Africa’s position in world trade is marginal, and various factors, including geography; concentration on low-value, inefficient agriculture; distorted policies; deficient infrastructure; and poor institutional support, have prevented African LDCs and SVEs from taking advantage of existing market access privileges, like the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and economic partnership agreements (EPAs), to integrate into the world economy in more important ways that would make an impact on economic development and poverty alleviation. The paper concludes that to make climate change financing and aid for trade complementary and mutually reinforcing, both African countries and donors need to recognize and specify the trade impacts of National Adaptation Plans of Action (NAPAs) projects and the climate change implications of aid for trade projects. […] Both NAPAs and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) should be closely linked when designed funded and implemented.
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IV. Resources from Recent and on Upcoming Events
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* Réévaluation du programme de travail des réformes du commerce des services en Afrique Centrale (in french only)
ILEAP, 26 March 2010
---> Presentations, Documents
* 19th session of the EU-ACP Joint Parliamentary Assembly
27 March - 1 April 2010, Tenerife, Spain
---> Meeting Documents
---> Speeches, Adopted Resolutions and Declarations
---> Read also the Conclusions on the Regional Strategy Papers
* UEMOA Council of Ministers Meeting.
30 March 2010 , Bissau, Guinea-Bissau
---> For more Information
* 2nd Inter-Regional Seminar of the ACP RIOs Focal Points on the “Monitoring Regional Integration” Project
13-15 April 2010, ACP House, Brussels, Belgium
---> Opening Statement by ACP Secretary-General, H.E. Dr. MOHAMED IBN CHAMBAS
* ATPC Workshop on Non-tariff Barriers to Trade
14 – 16 April 2010, Nairobi, Kenya
---> Presentations and opening statements
* ACP Working Party meeting
20 April 2010, Brussels.Belgium
---> Agenda
* China, Africa and the EU: an uneasy relationship?
21-22 April 2010, Antwerp, Belgium
---> Programme
* Heads of State and Government Meeting of the Member States of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU)
22 April 2010, Windhoek, Namibia
---> Final Communiqué
* Conference on The “CARIFORUM-EC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), One Year On: Regional Integration and Sustainable Development”.
22-23 April 2010, Bridgetown, Barbados
---> EC Press Release
* EU – SADC EPA Senior Officials meeting
26-30 April 2010, Brussels, Belgium
* Meeting of the International Trade Committee
27–28 April 2010, European Parliament, Brussels.
---> For more information
* EU – West Africa Contact group meeting on Agriculture
28 April 2010, Abuja, Nigeria
* Economic Commission for Africa workshop on trade facilitation for RECs
28-30 April 2010, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
---> For more information
* 60th meeting of the ACP-EU Committee of Ambassadors
29 April 2010, Brussels. Belgium
---> Communication
---> Provisional Agenda
* Civil society International Seminar on the Economic Partnership Agreements, “EPAs in (times of) crisis”
29 April 2010, Brussels, Belgium
---> More information
* EIB lending outside the EU: a way forward
29 April 2010, Brussels, Belgium
---> Conference Programme
* Meeting of the West African EPA Ministerial Monitoring Committee
3-7 May 2010, Bamako, Mali.
* 2nd Covenant of Mayors ceremony
4 May 2010, European Parliament, Brussels
---> More information
* IDB/INTAL-WTO Caribbean seminar on regional trading arrangements
4-6 May 2010, Barbados
* World Economic Forum on Europe
10-11 May 2010, Brussels, Belgium
---> Information on Guest Speakers and Programme
* Thirtieth Meeting of the CARICOM Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED)
13-14 May 2010, Guyana.
* 6th EU-Latin America and Caribbean Summit
18 May 2010, Madrid, Spain
---> For more Information
* Caribbean Trade and Investment Convention 2010
19-26 May 2010, Trinidad and Tobago
---> More information
* Roundtable on “One Hundred not out: What Future for SACU”?
20 May 2010, Pretoria, South Africa
---> For more Information
* AUC EPA negotiations coordination meeting
20-21 May 2010, Abuja, Nigeria.
---> Aide Memoire
* 2nd Africa-France Business Meeting
2-3 June 2010, Bordeaux, France.
---> For more Information
* 35th session of ACP-EC Council of Ministers: signing ceremony for 2nd revision of Cotonou agreement.
3-4 June 2010, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
*West Africa-EU technical and senior officials’ meetings on the EPA.
7-11 June 2010, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
* 10th International Economic Forum on Africa
11 June 2010, French Ministry of Economy, Industry and Employment, Paris.
---> For Registration and Agenda
* COMESA Infrastructure Conference
17-18 June 2010, Nairobi, Kenya.
Check our website for more events and resources!
http://www.acp-eu-trade.org
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