The enclosed news item provides very important information on the status of
the EU-ACP waiver request to the WTO for the continuation of various
preferential trade aspects in the post-Lome EU-ACP Cotonou Partnership
Agreement which is in force for the period 2000-2020.
All of you working on trade and development issues in the Caribbean and
Latin America should focus on this matter as it will set important policy
precedents for all trade agreements under negotiation which include the
Caribbean.
=============================
EU/ACP officials confident of WTO waiver for Lome successor
www.cananews.com - 12 Nov 2000
Kingstown, St Vincent, November, 11, CANA - Top officials of
the European
Commission (EC) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)
general
secretariat, have expressed optimism that the European
Union's request to
the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for aspects of the
Cotonou Agreement
will be obtained.
"We are not the only one to ask for this kind of waiver, our
big partners in
the international economy - the United States, for instance,
have also to
ask waivers of the WTO for certain kinds of trade
arrangements they have
with third countries so they cannot challenge too much, our
waiver,
because we would be in opposition to do the same for their
waivers," said
Bernard Petit, director-general for Development Corporation
at the European
Commission.
"There has [also] been a very strong political commitment
from the 15
counties in Europe to provide all the necessary solidarity
with the ACP in
WTO discussions," added Petit at a press briefing here.
Petit was speaking ahead of the start of the final day of a
three day ACP
regional seminar on the Cotonou Agreement which replaced the
Lome trade
and aid pacts.
The EU has asked for a waiver during the first eight years
of the agreement
that would allow ACP states to maintain the trade
preferences they enjoyed
under the Lome Conventions and, during this time, the EU
would conduct
negotiations for Regional Economic Partnership
Agreeents-REPA's, with
states in the six regions if the ACP grouping.
Chief of Development Co-operation at the ACP general
secretariat, Abbey
Ashiru, said there "temporary problems which are related to
the banana
problem" they did not expect any challenge to be mounted to
the entire
agreement as it would not be in the long term interest of
anyone to do so
and they remain confident that the banana question would
also be resolved.
The 20 year agreement provides for disbursement of 25.1
billion Euro's over
a 20 year period with periodic review to be conducted.
Petit said because the Cotonou Agreement, signed in Cotonou,
Benin last
February, now eliminates the element of entitlement, they
expect there
would be increased efficiency in the performance of states
which stand to
lose the money applied for if it is not used due to
underperformance.
Around 100 national and regional authorising officers from
the 15
beneficiary Caribbean countries are Friday concluding the
fourth of a series
of six ACP/EU seminars organised to promote common
understanding how
to implement the provisions of the Cotonou Agreement which
contains
trade, political and aid dimensions.
--
Dr. David E. Lewis
Senior Associate
Manchester Trade Ltd.
International Business Advisors
1155 15th Street, NW - Suite 302
Washington, DC 20005 USA
Tel (202) 331-9464
Fax (202) 785-0376
[log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
