Final deal on Lomé successor in sight

Date: 27/01/2000

By Gareth Harding

The EU and its African, Caribbean and Pacific partners are confident that they will be able to put the finishing touches to a new trade and aid deal at a high-level meeting in Brussels next week.

The two sides reached broad agreement on a successor to the Lomé Convention last month after two days of marathon talks, but were unable to remove the final stumbling blocks to an accord.

Both camps agreed then to work towards regional free-trade agreements after 2008 and to ask the World Trade Organisation for a waiver from its normal rules which would allow ACP states to keep their preferential access to European markets in the meantime.

Europe's former colonies will hold out for improved market arrangements at next Thursday's (3 February) meeting, but the European Commission will argue that granting any further concessions could jeopardise the chances of winning WTO approval for the deal.

There is also a disagreement over how long the new agreement should last.

The EU and most member states have proposed a 20-year time-frame, but developing countries argue that this would not give ACP states enough time to set up regional trading blocs and are instead pushing for 30 years.

On the thorny question of money, the 71 ACP countries have expressed disappointment that EU member states were unable to stump up more than €13.5 billion for the next seven years.

But the Commission's development director-general Philip Lowe, the Union's chief negotiator at the talks, argues that the ninth European Development Fund will effectively double the amount of cash received by the ACP countries by putting an end to the previous practice of committing "virtual money".

One of the major issues to be tackled by trade ministers and senior European Commission officials next week is how to deal with illegal immigrants caught entering the Union. ACP countries are expected to agree to take back economic migrants from their territory, but have so far refused to accept stateless people and those who passed through neighbouring states en route to the EU.

Despite the number of problems remaining to be ironed out, Lowe is upbeat about the prospects of clinching a deal at next week's meeting after more than a year of sometimes tortuous talks.

He said the Lomé negotiations were "at cruising speed", adding that the atmosphere generated by the progress made in December was "in stark contrast to the kind of discussion which took place between developed and developing countries in Seattle".

If everything goes according to plan next week, the two sides aim to sign a new agreement in May before submitting the new text to a lengthy ratification process which could take up to 18 months.

The EU and its African, Caribbean and Pacific partners are confident that they will be able to put the finishing touches to a new trade and aid deal at a high-level meeting in Brussels, 3.2.00.