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The acp-eu-trade.org newsletter -- No. 54/ November 2011
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In this issue:
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I. Trade Negotiations Insights
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II. News: Highlights of the month
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III. Selection from of recent publications
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IV. Upcoming Events
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Important message: ACP-EU-trade newsletter discontinued, ECDPM and ICTSD launch successors to TNI
This is the last issue of the acp-eu-trade.org newsletter. We thank you for following our coverage of trade issues between the ACP group and the EU, and hope that we have been useful to your work. You can still follow EPA related press coverage with our social bookmarking system. The acp-eu-trade.org website will stop being updated as of January 1st 2012.
TNI will stop being published, this is our last issue. It is replaced by a new publication, GREAT Insights, a new monthly which will focus on Governance, Regional integration, Agriculture and Trade issues in Africa and other developing countries, hence broadening the scope of the current TNI. Naturally, trade and development issues will continue to feature prominently, and the regular EPA Update will remain. GREAT Insights will gather expert analysis and commentary from a wide variety of stakeholders with different perspectives. We will release the first issue in late January, and cover the African Union Summit on Intra-African trade.
If you are already subscribers to TNI, you will automatically receive this new publications. If you are not, register here for GREAT Insights, and here for Bridges Africa.
ICTSD’s will expand its coverage of the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions. African issues will be covered in a new monthly periodical called Bridges Africa in English; and we will also continue production of our unique Francophone African publication Passerelles. As a complement to these analyses we will produce a continuous flow of insightful news related to African trade and development issues available online starting in January 2012. The coverage of Pacific and Caribbean regions will remain through a new periodical called Bridges Asia Pacific (forthcoming in 2012), Bridges and Puentes, two of the current ICTSD periodicals. In addition a new thematic news stream called Bridges Integration will cover regional and bilateral trade and integration agreements globally. Each of these publications will bring you original and top quality analysis from the regions with the cross cutting analysis and context that readers expect from the Bridges series.
We thank you for following to the acp-eu-trade.org newsletter, and wish you a nice holiday season.
Editor: qd@ecdpm.org
I. Trade Negotiations Insights, Vol.10, No.6, November 2011
A joint monthly publication by ECDPM (http://www.acp-eu-trade.org/tni), and ICTSD (www.ictsd.org/tni/index.htm)
Do forget to register to the new follow up to TNI, GREAT insights and Bridges Africa, if you are not already TNI subscribers.
Trade Negotiations Insights, Vol.10, No.9, December 2011
* Editorial
* News and publications In brief
* To have or not to have a round: the WTO at a crossroads (Rashid S. Kaukab)
* Can Kenya become a global exporter of business services? (Nora Dihel)
* PACER Plus progress and promise: Regional integration challenges and opportunities in the Pacific (Chris Noonan)
* The establishment of standards for international agricultural trade: Promoting Africa’s participation (Gbadebo Odularu and Emmanuel Tambi)
* Fostering industrial development in Africa in the new global environment: Key policy recommendations (Bineswaree Bolaky)
* Agriculture liberalisation and economic integration in Africa (Manitra A. Rakotoarisoa)
* WTO Roundup
* EPA UPDATE
* Calendar and resources
* European economic slowdown a problem for Africa: WTO
Reuters, 3 December 2011
The euro zone crisis will continue to hamper African countries' trade and economic growth because of the continent's dependence on exporting to European markets, the World Trade Organization chief said on Saturday. "The European economic slowdown is a problem for Africa," WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy told a news conference on the margins of an African Union conference for trade ministers in the Ghanaian capital.
-> AU plans to boost intra-African trade and fast-track the establishment of a pan-African FTA
* Economic Partnership Agreement not a priority for Africa – AU
Ghana Business News, 5 December 2011
The Deputy Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Erastus Jarnalese Onkundi Mwencha, says the structure of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the continent and the European Union is not to Africa’s advantage. “Our advantage is regional integration. Can EPA help us to integrate our markets? If anything it will stall us. I don’t think EPA is a priority for Africa,” Onkundi Mwencha told Business and Financial Times in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the 7th ordinary session of African Union Ministers of Trade conference in Accra.
* Free trade talks to kick Africa into future
Miller Matola, businesslive.co.za, 6 December 2011
The first round of negotiations to establish a free trade area covering 27 countries in southern and east Africa will kick off on December 8, in Nairobi. It is envisaged that the negotiations will be completed in 36 months.
* Problems Foreseen For African Tripartite FTA
Lorys Charalambous, tax-news.com, 8 November 2011
The South African Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies, has expressed the opinion that the planned roll out of the proposed tripartite free trade agreement (FTA), between the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), may “hit a snag” when negotiating on trade in manufactured goods between the member countries. (...) He disclosed that rules of origin - where products were really manufactured – would be a difficult question regarding goods produced in some other countries.
* ACP Parliamentarians urge 'flexibility' on EPAs, protection of development funds
ACP Secretariat Press release, 19 November 2011
Parliamentarians from the countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific concluded their twice-yearly plenary this week in Lomé, Togo with discussions on Economic Partnership Agreements, development cooperation with European partners, and the future of the ACP Group beyond the expiry of the Cotonou Agreement in 2020.
During the meeting, members raised concerns about Europe’s recent proposal to amend Market Access Regulation 1528, setting a deadline for ACP countries to ratify their EPAs by January 1 2014, or lose preferential free access to European markets.
* EAC: Talks with EU on market access on course
allafrica.com, 2 November 2011
Peter Kiguta, Director General of the EAC Customs and Trade Directorate, said on Thursday the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations between the EAC and the EU have not collapsed as its being alleged. "The question of EAC-EU EPA negotiations stalling or partner states being bulldozed does not arise. We are on course and we expect to conclude the negotiations as programmed," Kiguta said in a statement received in Nairobi. Kiguta said the EPA experts deliberated on the Rules of Origin (RoO), agriculture, economic and development cooperation, and dispute settlement, institutional arrangements in preparation for the EAC-EC Experts inter-session meeting to be held in mid- November and the joint EAC-EC Technical and senior officials meeting to be held in the second week of December.
* West Africa urges conclusion of economic partnership pact with EU
Justice Lee Adoboe, news.xinhuanet.com, 1 December 2011
President of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) James Victor Gbeho on Wednesday urged member states to expedite action on negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union. (...)"We have always mentioned the same outstanding issues and in the mean time the rest of West Africa is growing impatient with us. I am sure that if you think about it carefully, you would agree with me that the negotiations have lasted too long," he told the meeting.
-> Regional Ministers Refer Decisions On Epa Negotiations to ECOWAS Council, ECOWAS via allafrica.com, 2 December 2011
* Inaugural meeting of Caribbean-EU EPA customs committee to be convened
CARICOM Press Release, 6 December 2011
CARIFORUM Officials will meet with their European Union counterparts in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on December 8, to convene the First Meeting of the Special Committee on Customs Cooperation and Trade Facilitation under the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). (...) The Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and Head of the EPA Implementation Unit of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, Mr Branford Isaacs, has said of the upcoming, inaugural Meeting, “it marks yet another milestone on the path of EPA implementation, coming as it does on the heels of the convening this past June of the first meeting of the Trade and Development Committee under the CARIFORUM-EU EPA.”
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III. Selection of recent publications
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* EU development cooperation after the Lisbon Treaty: People, institutions and global trends.
Jeske van Seters and Henrike Klavert, ECDPM Discussion Paper 123, November 2011
The Lisbon Treaty has considerable consequences for the conduct of EU external policy and therefore affects the EU’s relations with developing countries. Almost two years after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, this paper examines the current state of play as regards the implications for EU development cooperation. Its purpose is to assess if small steps are made towards a stronger EU contribution to international development and poverty eradication.
* Europe, G20, and South-South Trade: Insights from European Approaches to Regional Integration in Africa
Sanoussi Bilal, Isabelle Ramdoo, Quentin de Roquefeuil, GMF Economic Policy Paper Series, November 2011
The aim of this paper is to briefly highlight some of the salient features of the European support to regional integration in Africa and the increasing presence of emerging players in Africa. In doing so, it will draw some tentative insights toward a more concerted effort at the G20 in support of African endeavors to foster its regional integration processes.
* The EU GSP Rules of Origin: An overview of recent reforms
Eckart Nauman, TRALAC Working Paper, November 2011
The rules of origin (RoO) for the various EU GSP programmes have been the same, and have in fact remained largely unchanged over the past decades. However, a number of important changes were implemented to the EU GSP RoO on 1 January 2011, some of which relate to the treatment of goods for origin purposes, but also in terms of some differentiation between LDCs and other beneficiaries.
* EU Proposal to End Preferences of 18 African and Pacific States: An Assessment
Lorand Bartels and Paul Goodison, Commonwealth Secretariat Trade Hot Topics Issue #91, November 2011
This issue of the Commonwealth Trade Hot Topics provides an assessment of the proposed regulation which the European Commission adopted on 30 September 2011.
* Trade Effects of Rules on Procurement for Commonwealth ACP Members
Annamaria La, Anthony Butler, Peter Trepte, Peter Pease, Commonwealth Secretariat Economic Paper Series 92, November 2011
The overall objective of this analysis is to assess the potential trade effects of rules on procurement policies on Commonwealth ACP members. The main objective is to facilitate the understanding of Commonwealth ACP members on the effects on their economies of negotiating rules on government procurement policies in regional and international trade agreements and to therein determine strategies that will best advance their development- interests in these fora.
* Why Trade Facilitation is Important for Africa
Barbara Rippel, World Bank Africa Trade Policy Note No: 27, November 2011
This chapter argues for approaching trade facilitation in a comprehensive way by addressing the new challenges to trade, which no longer arise predominantly from high tariffs but from barriers behind the border. This approach highlights the need for cross-sector analysis, for example along the value-chain of products, to address trade bottlenecks. However, the biggest obstacle to greater trade integration is the lack of accompanying policy and regulatory reforms. Trade facilitation can provide opportunities for African exporters if hard infrastructure and technical advice are backed by equally ambitious policy reforms.
* Fact sheet on the interim Economic Partnership Agreements- SADC EPA GROUP
EC DG trade, November 2011
* Fact sheet on the interim Economic Partnership Agreements - WEST AFRICA: IVORY COAST AND GHANA
EC DG trade, November 2011
* The World Trade Organization and the Post-Global Food Crisis Agenda: Putting Food Security First in the International Trade System
Olivier De Schutter, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Activity Report, November 2011
This briefing note offers a preliminary assessment of the compatibility between the WTO and efforts to protect the human right to adequate food as part of the post-crisis food security agenda.
* Empowerment policies in SADC and their effect on agreement design
Paul Kruger, Tralac trade brief, November 2011
The paper considers the effect of the earlier GATS commitments on scheduling empowerment restrictions in the regional context and the challenges being posed by the SADC standstill clause and the requirements of GATS Article V. The paper also proposes some alternatives to safeguard local industries and concludes by evaluating the possible exceptions provided by the services agreements.
* International trade and inclusive growth: a primer for busy policy analysts
Daniel Lederman, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, November 2011
This note provides two analytical frameworks for understanding the role of trade in promoting inclusive growth in developing economies.
* Impact Evaluation of Trade Interventions: Paving the Way
Olivier Cadot, Ana M. Fernandes, Julien Gourdon, Aaditya Mattoo, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 5877, November 2011
Theis paper discusses examples of impact evaluations using a range of methods (experimental and non-experimental), highlighting the particular issues and caveats arising in a trade context, and the valuable lessons that are already being learned. The authors argue that systematically building impact evaluation into trade projects could lead to better policy design and a more credible case for “aid-for-trade.”
* Aid for Trade on the Ground: Lessons from Malawi
Jonathan Said and John McGrath Catherine Grant, Geoffrey Chapman, ICTSD Issue Paper No. 21, November 2011
This analysis finds that only a few of the desired aspects of AfT are present in Malawi, although there is evidence of positive, though initial, trends in certain key aspects.
* Regional Integration and Trade in Sub-Saharan Africa
United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), Trade and Investment Analytical Papers Topic 7 of 18, November 2011
This note examines why enhancing regional integration and trade are important issues for the future development of Sub-Saharan Africa.
* Global Imbalances: Trade Effects and Policy Challenges
Przemyslaw Kowalski, Molly Lesher, OECD Working Party of the Trade Committee, November 2011
This paper goes beyond macroeconomic management considerations and exchange rate realignments to assess how one type of structural policy reform – namely trade and trade-related policy reforms – may facilitate global rebalancing. In addition, the paper analyses how might various rebalancing scenarios, even if they do not explicitly include major trade policy reforms, impact global trade.