ACP General Secretariat

Press release

Brussels, 30 October 2002

First negotiations meeting on the ACP-EU Economic partnership agreements at ambassadorial level.

Differences concerning the nature of the Phase I of the negotiations.

The first joint ACP-EU meeting on the negotiations of the EPAs at ambassadorial level was held at the ACP House in Brussels on Wednesday 30 October 2002. The ACP delegation was lead by the Chairman of the ACP Committee of Ambassadors, Sutiawan GUNESSEE who chaired the meeting. On the EU side, the delegation was headed by Karl FALKENBERG, Director from the Directorate General for Trade of the European Commission, who was accompanied by officers of the Trade and Agriculture Directorates general of the European Commission.

Among the main issues on the agenda were the following: Structure of the negotiations ; Issues for Phase I (the “All-ACP negotiations”) ; Procedure for moving from Phase I (All-ACP) to Phase II (Regional level) ; Establishment of a Joint ACP-EU Steering Committee on WTO negotiations.

Structure of the negotiations.

The ACP recalled the decision of the Council of Ministers that, at the Ministerial level, the ACP will appoint spokespersons to address specific subjects. At the Ambassadorial level, the entire ACP Committee of Ambassadors will meet with the EU side. At this level as well, ACP spokespersons will be appointed. At the Technical level, a co-ordinating group will be established. The co-ordinating group could establish specific technical expert groups.

The ACP took note of the structure put in place by the EU. The European Commission will be responsible for the negotiations. At the ministerial level, the Head of the EU delegation will be the Commissioner in charge of Trade, Mr. Pascal LAMY, who could be accompanied by other Commissioners, namely Mr. Poul NIELSON (Development), Mr. Franz FISCHLER (Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries), and Mr. Erkki LIKANEN (Enterprises and Information Society), according to the issues being discussed. At the ambassadorial level, the EU delegation will be conducted by Mr. Karl FALKENBERG accompanied by senior officers from various Directorates General. The ACP Group expressed its regret at the absence of representatives of EU Member States in this structure.

Issues to be considered during the Phase I.

The ACP considered that the following issues should be considered during the Phase I : Market access – including, inter alia, rules of origin, trade facilitation including customs procedures, non-tariff barriers to trade including standardization and certification, safeguards, product coverage and transitional periods ; Agriculture and fisheries - including, inter alia, commodities and commodity protocols, sanitary and phytosanitary measures ; Trade in services, - including, inter alia, labour, business, distribution, financial, tourism, cultural, construction and related engineering services, air and sea transport, information and communication technologies ; Trade-related issues - including, inter alia, competition policy, intellectual property rights, trade and environment ; Development Cooperation issues – including, inter alia, supply side constraints, transport and telecommunication infrastructure, energy, investment promotion and protection schemes, technologies, capacity building, and financial support and other measures to address adjustment costs ; Legal issues - including, inter alia, dispute settlement, legal status of the Agreement(s), institutional matters, and WTO compatibility.

The Head of the ACP delegation specified that certain cross-cutting subjects, such as special and differential treatment, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and safeguards could be dealt with in more than one negotiating group.

For its part, the EU proposed its so called “toolbox” with four areas : market access, rules related to trade and investment, procedural issues – along with development, which should be a cross cutting issue.

Transition from Phase I to Phase II . The ACP underlined the guidelines provided by the Cotonou Agreement for the EPAs negotiations, in accordance with which : it is for the ACP Group to agree on the procedures for the negotiation of EPAs ; the “Parties” to the Cotonou Agreement (EU on one side and the entire ACP Group on the other side) will regularly review the preparations and negotiations and will in 2006 carry out a formal and comprehensive review of the arrangements planned for all countries. This implies that an all ACP structure will remain all along the process. Therefore, the transition from phase 1 to Phase II negotiations should take account of regional and national interests as well as of the unity and solidarity of the Group.

The EU agreed on the two phase process, the first extending until September 2003, the second one starting after, with a certain degree of flexibility allowing the co-existence of both of the phases. It agrees also on the maintenance of an all-ACP mechanism during the entire process of the negotiations so as to ensure inter alia the reviews of the negotiations.

The differences between the two parties concerned : the nature of Phase I, (for the ACP it should be a “negotiation” whereas for the EU it should constitute no more than a “clarification”); and on the conclusion of this phase (for the ACP there should be a formal agreement, whereas for the EU there should be no binding outcome).

Establishment of a Joint ACP-EU Steering Committee on WTO negotiations.

The ACP-EU Ministerial meeting in September 2002 agreed on the establishment of a Joint ACP-EU Steering Committee on WTO matters at Ambassadorial level. The ACP informed the EU that this mechanism should be put in place for consultation and coordination between the Brussels-based and the Geneva-based ACP Ambassadors for both the WTO and the EPA negotiations while the existing ACP-EU mechanism in Geneva for consultation on topical WTO issues should be maintained. The EU side indicated that it would await receipt of this proposal in writing.

The next negotiations meeting on the ACP-EU Economic partnership agreements at ambassadorial level.

will take place during the first week of December. The issues to be discussed at that meeting could include : re-clustering of issues, legal status of EPAs including ratification and entry into force, who would be party to the EPAs - ACP States or regions, who, on the EU side could make commitments – the Commission or member States, particularly in areas of mixed competence including services and investment. The next Joint Ministerial Trade Committee will take place in February 2003 in St. Lucia. The next ACP-EU Ministerial meeting could be held during the first half of 2003.

contact : Hegel Goutier phone +32 2 743 06 04 / 743 06 93 fax +32 2 743 06 58 www.acp.int