The Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States

ACP PRESS STATEMENT
September 4th, 2008

Chief negotiators from six regions of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group, are in Brussels, Belgium to discuss the state of play of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in ACP States.

Opening the meeting on Thursday August 4th, ACP Secretary General Sir John Kaputin said negotiations have trapped the ACP States into a state that can be best described as being caught between “a rock and a hard place”.

The EPA negotiations started in September 2002 and were supposed to be completed by 31 December 2007, when the Cotonou trade regime and the WTO waiver on the non-compatibility of the EU's preferential trade relations with ACP countries expired.

However, most of the ACP regions did not meet the deadline, except for the Caribbean who initialed a full EPA, while some ACP countries signed interim agreements with the EU.
Sir John said the process towards the deadline of December 2007 was frantic for most ACP States, which agreed to initial interim Agreements with the sole objective of avoiding trade disruption that would have occurred through the threatened raising of tariffs by the EU on ACP goods which until now were entering the EU markets free of customs duty.
He said that in the process, many ACP states submitted hastily drawn up liberalization schedules that did not take account of the liberalization commitments of their neighbouring countries.

Sir John believes this could have significant implications for future regional integration processes.

He added that ACP states also accepted wording in the EPA texts that on a closer re-examination have caused some concerns.

He said that ACP States want the preferential duty free and quota free market access that the EPAs offer, but the cost is difficult to estimate.

According to Sir John, the cost will be in terms of ultimate loss of budgetary revenue due to tariff dismantlement.

It would also be due to reduced policy space arising from limitation to the use of instruments which hitherto are used by developed countries for achieving their own development agenda.

“There could also be destabilization of ACP economies from the expected flood of EU imports.
“To compound all this, the promised financial aid commitments from the EU is neither clearly specified nor determinable. Even when availed, disbursements cannot be forecasted,” the Secretary General, said.
The meeting, which ends on Friday, is expected to hear reports on the status of EPAs in the six regions.

The objective of the meeting is to come up with a set of recommendations that will guide the Ministerial Trade Committee in its work of charting the best way forward for the ACP Group in its future trade relations with the European Union.

Further details contact Press Attache: iroga@acp.int