ACP countries fear ‘devastating’ tariffs

The European Commission will sign economic development deals with some African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, with other states being left out.

The Portuguese presidency of the EU acknowledged that the move, which was confirmed at a meeting of development ministers this week (20 November), would be "harmful".

"I do think that it is harmful in terms of the development potential of EPAs [Economic Partnership Agreements], but we are dealing with sovereign countries, there’s only so much on the European side that can be done," said João Gomes Cravinho, the Portuguese development minister .

"It is possible that two or three countries in a region will not actually be part of that EPA…they are sovereign countries and after all it’s up to them," he added.

Some ACP states have complained that the EPAs will harm their vulnerable industry by opening their products up to competition once tariff barriers are brought down. Governments are also concerned about losing revenue they receive from the tariff barriers.

But critics say that signing EPAs with some but not all ACP countries will work against the integration of regional markets, one of the main aims of the EPAs.

"Those countries which sign up to an EPA under the threat of facing devastating increases in export tariffs to the EU would then pay a high price as these proposals would seriously impede trade within regions. Whichever way you look at it, this risks creating a complicated mess," said Luis Morago, head of Oxfam International’s Brussels office.

But Gomes Cravinho said that it was clear from the EPA negotiations that some countries did not want regional integration. "In some cases intra-ACP dynamics have made reaching a conclusion extremely difficult, and I would just, without going into further details, make reference to west Africa as one such example where intra-ACP dynamics, difficulties of market integration, which are African difficulties, have stood in the way of an EPA," he said.

Peter Mandelson, the European trade commissioner, told the European Parliament’s trade committee on Tuesday (20 November) that of the six regions in the ACP, progress towards signing EPAs had been made with the Pacific, east Africa and southern Africa groups. He said that he was "disappointed by recent progress" in talks with the Caribbean region and that the "greatest challenge" lay with the west and central African regions.

It is unlikely that any EPAs will be signed by the end of the year, the deadline after which the EU’s preferential trading system with the ACP countries comes to an end. Mandelson said that interim deals would be put in place to ensure that the ACP countries would still get preferential access to EU markets for certain products.

Bert Koenders, the Dutch development minister, had requested that conclusions from the development ministers’ meeting included a reference to no country being worse off from 1 January 2008 when the preferential system is dismantled. Instead, ministers agreed to review the situation at a meeting next month.

Gunilla Carlsson, the Swedish development minister, said that she was confident that countries would not be worse off next year. "I am confident with the way the Commission is dealing with this in a legal framework but also development friendly," she said.

The European Commission will sign economic development deals with some African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, with other states being left out.