Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 7 • Number 41 • 4th December 2003

ACP Council Of Ministers Meeting Discusses Post-Cancun World

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The ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) Council of Ministers met from the 27-28 November in Brussels for its 78th session. Delegates to the meeting discussed, inter alia, post-Cancun positions on WTO issues, the review of the EU-ACP Cotonou Agreement, and agriculture.

Links to the WTO process

At the meeting, ministers affirmed the relevance and validity of the ACP Declaration at the fifth WTO Ministerial Conference (see http://www.ictsd.org/ministerial/cancun/docs/acp_decl.htm). They reiterated the need for WTO Members to recognise the needs and interests of developing countries, and encouraged the continuation of the G-90 or "Tripartite Alliance" (between ACP, least developed and African Union countries) pursued in Cancun. The ministers also called on the WTO General Council to renew negotiations on issues such as special and differential treatment (S&D) for developing countries, implementation issues, the special situation of LDCs, the work programme for small economies, and the rules governing regional trade agreements. The group stressed that cotton should be treated separate from other issues under negotiation, and should be included as a General Council agenda item. They added that the consideration of the Singapore issues should take into account the need for "explicit consensus," accompanied by progress on development issues in the Doha round of trade negotiations. The meeting also requested the WTO to grant the ACP Group of States and the ACP Inter-governmental and Regional Organisations permanent observer status.

Review of the Cotonou Agreement

The ACP Council requested a review of the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement - - also known as the Cotonou agreement — on issues such as the creation of a Peace Facility for Africa and the use of the resources of the European Development Fund (EDF), which is the main financial and technical instrument of the partnership. The Committee of Ambassadors was mandated to finalise the ACP-EU Agreement on Information Society for Development, taking into account the outcome of the December 2003 World Summit on the Information Society. The last joint ACP-EU meeting was held at the beginning of October this year (see BRIDGES Weekly, 8 October 2003).

Key commodities figure in talks

Ministers discussed agriculture and specifically the ACP’s cooperation with the EU on bananas, sugar, cotton and rice. The Council decided to form a ministerial follow-up committee, with the intention of strengthening the cotton trade sector. The ACP countries also asked for consultations regarding the imminent EU enlargement, on issues such as the impact on bananas. To enhance the competitiveness of the Caribbean rice industry, the Council of Ministers requested a speedy implementation of the existing rice industry support programme, hoping that the EC would consider measures to relieve any negative impacts that changes to the Common Market Organisation for rice (involving market support through an intervention price and export refunds together with variable duty protection against imports from other countries) would have on ACP rice exporters. For sugar, the Council asked EU member states to adopt measures in defence of the sugar regime.

ACP group was established though the Georgetown Agreement, initially signed on 6 June 1975. The group comprises 78 states in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific, including a majority of the LDCs in the world.

The next ACP Council of Ministers meeting is set to take place in Babarone, Botswana from the 3-5 May 2004.

To view the Cotonou Agreement between the ACP and EC, visit http://europa.eu.int/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexapi!prod! celexnumdoc&numdoc=22000a1215(01)&lg=en.

ICTSD reporting.