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General Secretariat of the African, Press release ( Main decisions and resolutions adopted by the ACP Council
of Ministers. Meeting in Among the main issues discussed by the Council are the
state of progress of the EPA negotiations, the preparation of the Cancun WTO ministerial
conference, the implementation of the Cotonou
Agreement and more specifically the disbursement of EDF funds, and the
candidature of Timor Leste to the ACP Group and to
the ACP-EU cooperation. Decisions
EPA negotiations. The Council emphasizes that the
desired outcome of Phase I EPA negotiations includes concluding an all ACP-EU
Agreement on principles and objectives as well as issues of common interest
to the entire Group. Concerned over the slow progress in achieving the objectives
of Phase I EPA negotiations and that divergences on issues of principle have
arisen, it decided to meet in a special session before the end of September
2003 to consider the state of the negotiations and prepare for the 2nd
ACP-EU Ministerial Meeting on the Negotiations on EPAs. Implementation of
the EDF programme in ACP. The Council endorses the "Brussels Declaration" adopted by
the ACP national and Regional Authorising officers whose meeting was held in Brussels from 10
to 12 May, which recommends, inter alia, measures to correct the slow rate of
disbursement of EDF resources and to promote a better participation of the
ACP to the decision making process related to the utilization of EDF funds. Textiles and clothing. The ACP ministers express concerns on threat
to the survival of the ACP textiles and clothing industries, generated by the
removal of quotas on exports and the reduction of tariffs on these products
decided in the framework of the WTO negotiations. They decide to mandate the
Committee of Ambassadors to submit, as a matter of urgency, to the European
Commission a project, to be financed from unutilised resources of past EDFs and/or 9th EDF reserves and/or intra-ACP
funds, for the restructuring and modernization of the textiles and clothing
industries of the ACP States. Resolutions
President Chirac's initiative for Africa. The
Council of Ministers welcomes the initiative and the built-in three-point
action plan to address the agricultural development concerns of the sub-Saharan
African countries at the forthcoming Evian G-8 Summit with a view to
assisting these countries to meet the development challenges facing them. It
supports the proposed moratorium on all forms of agricultural subsidies for
products exported to Africa for the duration of the current WTO negotiations
and believes that, when accompanied by improved efficiency in food aid
operations, would provide the needed safeguards for stabilizing the
agricultural sector in these countries. Bananas. The ACP Council considers that EU banana
imports from the ACP are governed by import licensing arrangements which
disproportionately penalise ACP suppliers, particularly the most vulnerable,
and the concerns expressed to the European Commission by the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary
Assembly and
the ACP were not given due consideration, with the result that ACP interests
have not been satisfactorily accommodated in the reform of the EU banana
regime. The Council expresses concerns about the continuing deterioration of
prices for ACP bananas on the European Market, which threatens the existence
of the ACP banana industry, and which has resulted in the recent cessation of
banana production from Rice. The Council notes that the management of
the present rice quota is lacking in transparency and the ACP countries do
not benefit as expected. It calls on the European Council - to take full
account of the adverse effects on the ACP rice industry when considering the
European Commission's proposals for changes to the common organization of the
market in rice and to consider remedial and compensatory measures
; - to assist ACP exporters in their efforts to meet the EU’s sanitary and phytosanitary
requirements ; and to promote the import of finished products to the EU. Sugar.
The Council calls on the European Union - to defend, maintain and honour the legal obligation and political commitment
enshrined in the Cotonou Agreement, particularly
the Sugar Protocol and recognize that the “review” referred to in the Cotonou Agreement does not in any way imply a
“renegotiation” of the Sugar Protocol and that the provision in the article
is to ensure the WTO-compatibility of the Sugar Protocol and to safeguard the
benefits derived therefrom ; to ensure that such a
review does not entail any further shifting of the burden of internal EU CAP
reforms and its wider trade liberalization initiatives on the small and
vulnerable economies of the ACP sugar supplying States. It calls on the Commission of the European
Communities and the EU Member States to take, in conjunction with ACP Group
of States, all necessary measures to defend the Sugar Regime and the terms
and conditions of the ACP Preferential access against unwarranted challenges
posed by Australia, Brazil and Thailand ; and to honour their commitments under the Sugar Protocol
irrespective of the outcome of the challenges. It urges them to make
provisions for the necessary mechanism to guarantee at least the same level
of earnings to the producers of the ACP sugar States as the EU sugar
producers. Tuna. The
Council calls on the European Union and the ensure that access to the
European market is preserved for ACP products in general, tuna in particular
; ensure that the offers made by the EU in the framework of the Doha agenda
on tariff compression do not hamper development efforts in the ACP countries
; agree with the ACP Group on the establishment of a specific framework for
providing the ACP states concerned with the means to pursue the development
of their tuna industries which could comprise the following : a financial
mechanism to enable the ACP tuna
producers to reinforce their competitiveness ; a system to guarantee improved
income for tuna-producing countries ; a compensatory mechanism in the event
of a negative impact on the ACP economies concerned ; and the grant, as from
1 July 2003, of a 25 000 tonnes quota in respect of canned tuna without
restriction on the origin of the tuna.
Cotton. The
Council request the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) :
to take up the submission made by Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali on 30
April 2003 to ensure that cotton is recognized as an essential commodity in the
development policy of the ACP producer countries ; to take all the
necessary measures to ensure that, at the 5th WTO Conference
scheduled for Cancun from 10 to 14 September 2003, a series of
measures are adopted for compensating the losses suffered by countries affected
by the adverse effects of these subsidies, as well as the total abolition of
such subsidies. The Council request the European Union to lend its firm
support to the initiative introduced at the WTO by the ACP cotton producing
countries ; and to seek with these countries, in the framework of the ACP-EU
partnership, simple mechanisms for compensating losses in earnings and
establishing policies of diversification. ____________________________________________________________________________ Contact Hegel Goutier +32 2 743 06 04/93 fax +32 2 743 06 58 goutier@acp.int |