Africans threaten to quit EU?trade talks

East and central African countries are warning that they are not prepared to continue negotiations with the European Commission aimed at establishing new Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the EU until development issues are given a higher priority, according to an official close to the talks.

The EPAs are supposed to be in place by the end of 2007. But there are a wide range of issues of principle now dividing negotiators for the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries from their EU counterparts. "Like the Doha Development Round of trade liberalisation talks, these EPAs are meant to be developmental, but, as in Doha, the development dimension is being neglected," said a trade diplomat involved in the talks.

Last week David O’Sullivan, the Commission’s director-general for trade, conceded that the talks were not going well. "I know the ACP countries are very angry…not happy, with the way the negotiations are progressing," he told a conference on trade policy.

Diplomats say that some of the 76 ACP countries have become so frustrated with the negotiations that they are trying to bypass the Commission and going directly to EU national governments.

Last month, a group of ACP ministers went to Berlin ahead of Germany’s presidency of the EU to meet the German Development Minister Heidimarie Wieczorek-Zeul. They then went to London for a meeting with Trade Minister Alistair Darling and Development Minister Hilary Benn.

They are demanding that the EU address the development aspects of the EPAs, including adequate finance for the costs of adjusting to the reforms that the EU is demanding.

The Commission argues that the EPAs are intended to help build regional markets and diversify the ACP economies so that they can compete better in global markets. The trade liberalisation and policy reforms in areas such as competition policy and government procurement which EPAs are intended to ‘lock in’ are also meant to have a developmental impact.

Negotiations with the ACP countries were restructured on a regional basis in 2004 with plans established for each of six separate regions, four in Africa, plus one each for the Caribbean and Pacific. The aim is to reach new EPAs compatible with the World Trade Organization (WTO) by December 2007, when the current WTO waiver for preferences under the Cotonou agreement expires. But some regions are still stuck in the first phase of the negotiations while the Caribbean has moved to phase three.

Fouad Hamdam of Friends of the Earth Europe described the trade dimension of the talks, which covers issues such as government procurement, trade facilitation and competition policy, as "an aggressive free trade agenda, with [Trade Commissioner] Peter Mandelson telling these countries he knows best".

Also worrying for some of the countries involved in the talks has been the apparent lack of co-ordination between the Commission’s trade and development departments. "DG Trade cannot talk development and DG Development is saying these are trade talks," said one participant.

Brussels, he added, did not have enough financial resources to fund the vital development dimension of any new agreements so funding would have to come from member states. Last month the Finnish presidency put a proposal on aid for trade to the foreign affairs ministers, which indicated that some resources from the member states may be forthcoming.

For the EU, with the Doha round of trade talks in trouble, getting agreement on the new trade and development relationship with the ACP countries is a high political priority. The EPAs with the ACP countries could help the EU play a more active role in promoting development in some of the world’s poorest countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, and so underscore its commitment to helping them achieve faster economic growth.

East and central African countries are warning that they are not prepared to continue negotiations with the European Commission aimed at establishing new Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the EU until development issues are given a higher priority, according to an official close to the talks.

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