Call for ACP talks to address farm reform

Date: 26/09/02

By David Cronin

FARM issues should be 'centre-stage' in EU talks on boosting trade with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, an anti-poverty watchdog has urged.

Negotiations on establishing economic partnership agreements with ACP countries between now and 2007 begin in Brussels tomorrow (27 September).

Development groups believe these should be used to address how the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) can be reoriented so that it complies more with the Union's stated goal of fighting poverty.

'We need to have CAP reform centre-stage in the negotiations,' said Paul Goodison from the European Research Office, which specialises in EU policy towards Southern Africa.

He argues that if poor countries are to develop they have to be encouraged to move away from producing only raw materials towards improving their processing capacity. 'But they can't do this if the EU is exporting flour at 20 below the market price,' he added. 'In Southern Africa, that closes mills down.'

Goodison argued that the European Commission's official mandate for the talks skirts around CAP reform. The only major CAP-related issue it addresses, he said, is the potential impact of export subsidies paid to European farmers on 'the process of trade liberalisation'.

A new European Research Office paper states there is a strong case for examining the reform of the EU sugar sector during the talks.

At present, Guyana and the islands in the Caribbean and Pacific export sugar to the EU under a preferential access arrangement. Yet, in October 2000, the Commission calculated that if changes to the EU's sugar sector led to a 25 reduction in the Union's sugar price, ACP exporters could lose some €250 million.

Declining beef prices in the EU have been blamed for the collapse in exports of frozen meat from Swaziland, the report says. The European Research Office is advocating the abolition of the 8 levy which the EU imposes on beef imports from the ACP bloc.

As a result, producers have to pay a duty worth about €0.20 on each kilo of beef they sell to the Union.

'Sorting out the CAP issue is far more important to countries like Swaziland than getting aid from the EU,' said Goodison.

Meanwhile, the Commission has announced it is granting €20 million to help ACP governments prepare for the talks by, for instance, commissioning studies and providing training in negotiation techniques.

Farm issues should be 'centre-stage' in EU talks on boosting trade with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, an anti-poverty watchdog has urged. Negotiations on establishing economic partnership agreements with ACP countries between 2002 and 2007 begin in Brussels on 27 September 2002.