ACP-EU
Boel optimistic about gaining support for controversial sugar industry reform
Source: BARBADOS ADVOCATE
Web Posted - Wed Jul 27 2005 Boel optimistic about gaining support for controversial sugar industry reform
EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel expressed optimism she would win support for a controversial sugar industry reform, as thousands of sugar producers hit the streets of Brussels.
Boel said the planned reform, which European sugar makers believe will endanger their livelihoods, is vital to save the industry.
I dont see any significant majority against, she told reporters after it was presented to EU farm ministers for the first time. There are more votes for, than against this proposal today.
If we do not do anything then the whole sugar production in Europe will suffer a slow painful death, thats for sure, she said.
The reforms became necessary after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) declared current EU policies, which date back to 1968, illegal based on a complaint from Australia, Brazil and Thailand.
At the moment, the EU offers a guaranteed price for sugar that is paid for, in effect, by consumers, with Brussels buying from producers at about three times the average world market price.
The European Commissions plan is to cut the guaranteed price by 39 per cent over two years from 2007 and offer a voluntary compensation scheme for producers forced out of business by the price cut.
It hopes to get the go ahead for its plans by November. Of course it is not a surprise that a few ministers expressed their doubts on the sustainability of cutting the prices so deeply, as we have proposed,Fischer Boel said. This is the first political discussion that we've had in the council and I was very much encouraged,she said, but refused to reveal how many of the EUs 25 members were against the plans.
However, an official close to the dossier said that the position among the ministers had hardened against the reforms, with a total of ten states now opposing them. Previously eight members had formed a blocking minority against the plans: Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Lithuania, Portugal and Spain.
Fischer Boel said it was important to have a result when she travels to Hong Kong in December for the next WTO summit.
Meanwhile between 6 000 and 8 000 producers from 21 European countries gathered nearby to make sure their voices were heard.
What future for us? read one placard brandished by the demonstrators, whose protest remained calm as EU farm ministers met to discuss the proposals.
The reform will only be good for a few multinationals who dominate the sugar market and it will be negative for European farmers,said Roger Saenen, spokesman for the Flemish Boerenbond agriculture union.
The plans are also likely to hit the sugar sector in 18 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, so-called ACP countries, which also benefit from the preferred price system.
They claim they will lose 400 million euros (480 million dollars) a year. It will push us into poverty and bankruptcy, Christian Foo Kune, speaking on behalf of the ACP group, told AFP.
In the package, the commission is offering 40 million euros to help ACP producers but the funds will go nowhere close to recuperating industry losses.
WTO
Ministers gather in Geneva amid fears of slowing talks
Source: BUSINESS DAY (S. Africa)
Posted to the web on: 28 July 2005
Ministers gather in Geneva amid fears of slowing talks
Sapa-AP
MINISTERS from key trade powers were gathering in Geneva today to discuss the Doha round of negotiations, amid fears that efforts to agree a new global treaty were falling even further behind schedule.
Supachai Panitchpakdi, the outgoing director-general of the World Trade Organisation, warned delegates that significant work will be needed through the autumn if they are to succeed and that the situation was “disappointing but not disastrous.”
“What we need urgently is not just a change of gear in these negotiations but also a change of attitude and approach,” Supachai said. “Disappointment must be converted immediately into determination.”
Talks at WTO headquarters this week are a key part of the process aimed at hammering out an accord at a December ministerial summit in Hong Kong.
“We are going to have to work very, very hard, starting from the beginning of September and just be in more or less continuous negotiations up until Hong Kong,” Deputy US Trade Representative Peter Allgeier told The Associated Press.
“And I think that has really dawned on people these last few days as people have reviewed the reports of the negotiating group chairs and seen exactly how much work we have to do,” Allgeier added.
Last-ditch meetings earlier this week failed to make significant progress in the key area of farm subsidies, meaning WTO members are unlikely to meet a self-imposed July deadline for an outline deal covering all sectors.
“There has been progress, but we are clearly far from the kind of progress we would all have liked to achieve by the end of July,” Supachai said. “If the necessary breakthroughs are not forthcoming early in the autumn, the possibility of the substantive results at Hong Kong which are essential to conclude the round will be inevitably put into jeopardy.”
European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson arrived this morning, while US Trade Representative Robert Portman was to leave Washington later in the day.
Incoming WTO chief Pascal Lamy, who takes over from Supachai Sept. 1, will address the trade body’s governing general council tomorrow.
Lamy met with Mandelson and Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath over lunch today, said Fabian Delcros, spokesman for the EU in Geneva. It was unclear whether Lamy planned to meet with other ministers.
This round of talks — launched in Doha, Qatar, in 2001 — is meant to pay extra attention to the interests of poorer countries as WTO members slash subsidies, tariffs and other barriers to global commerce.
But a 2003 conference in Cancun, Mexico, that was supposed to spur efforts collapsed, in large part over differences on agricultural policy.
“If things are not going as well as hoped for, that is all the more reason to remain fully engaged and to do whatever I can to move things forward,” Mandelson said before he left Brussels.
OMC / UE / ACP
La OMC rechaza el arancel europeo al banano latinoamericano
Fuente: CINCO DIAS
Agencias / GINEBRA (02-08-2005) La OMC rechaza el arancel europeo al banano latinoamericano
La Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC) dio ayer la razón a nueve países latinoamericanos productores de banano en su demanda contra la Unión Europea (UE), que planeaba aumentar sus aranceles sobre ese fruto a partir de 2006 y que ahora tendrá que rectificar.
En su decisión, los árbitros de la OMC dijeron que el aumento arancelario previsto por la UE 'no llevaría al mantenimiento del acceso al mercado (comunitario) de los actuales abastecedores de banana'. La Comisión Europea había anunciado que a partir del primero de enero de 2006 aumentaría a 230 euros (unos 278 dólares) por tonelada el arancel que impone a los países latinoamericanos productores de banano para entrar en el mercado europeo y que actualmente es de 75 euros (unos 90 dólares).
Los países latinoamericanos productores de banano a los que afecta esta decisión son Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Panamá, Brasil, Venezuela y Nicaragua.
'Notamos con satisfacción la decisión del grupo de árbitros que determinó que la reconsolidación propuesta por la UE para los bananos no permitiría mantener, al menos el mismo acceso a sus mercados para nuestros países', señala el comunicado de los países afectados.
Durante el proceso de arbitraje las propuestas de arancel manejadas por los negociadores latinoamericanos eran todas inferiores a los actuales 75 euros por tonelada. Los latinoamericanos consideraron que el nuevo arancel era excesivo y que disminuiría su participación en el mercado europeo ante la competencia de los países ACP (África, Caribe y Pacífico) que gozan de un acceso preferencial con arancel cero para el banano. A partir de ahora, la UE dispone de un plazo de 10 días para iniciar consultas con las partes.
SOUDAN
John Garang est mort
Source: COURRIER INTERNATIONAL
1er août 2005 SOUDAN - John Garang est mort
"Un hélicoptère transportant John Garang, l'ancien chef rebelle soudanais, qui venait de prendre les fonctions de vice-président, s'est écrasé ce week-end au cours d'un vol effectué par très mauvais temps entre le nord de l'Ouganda et le sud du Soudan", rapporte The New York Times.
Pendant quelques heures, la confusion a régné concernant le sort de Garang, qui avait quitté l'Ouganda samedi 30 juillet en fin d'après-midi après avoir effectué une visite officielle dans ce pays. Ainsi, la télévision soudanaise avait annoncé dans un premier temps, dimanche, que l'hélicoptère militaire ougandais transportant Garang s'était posé sans problème dans un camp du Sud-Soudan. "Mais, lundi 1er août au matin, les autorités ougandaises ont annoncé qu'elles avaient retrouvé l'épave de l'appareil et qu'il n'y avait pas de survivants", poursuit le quotidien américain, avant de brosser un portrait du leader soudanais, qui disparaît "après avoir, depuis 1983, dirigé la rébellion sudiste contre le gouvernement islamiste installé à Khartoum".
Après plus de vingt et un ans de vie dans le maquis, John Garang avait prêté serment le 9 juillet dernier pour accéder aux fonctions de premier vice-président et de président du gouvernement autonome du Sud-Soudan, conformément à l'accord de paix signé avec le gouvernement central en janvier 2005. Selon cet accord, sa succession au sein du gouvernement doit revenir à un membre du Mouvement populaire de libération du Soudan (SPLM), qu'il dirigeait. En revanche, sa succession en tant que chef charismatique dans le sud du pays sera plus difficile à assurer.
PACIFIC - ACP
Ministers discuss economics strategies
Source: FIJI TIMES
(Thursday, July 28, 2005) Ministers discuss economics strategies
MINISTERS and officials of the Pacific ACP (African, Caribbean, Pacific) negotiating team on the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union (EU) met in Nadi to exchange views and agree on briefs that will be used for the up-coming EPA negotiations.
The two-day meet held on July 18-19 at the Mocambo Hotel featured a meeting by the Regional Negotiating Team (RNT) consisting of nine forum member Ministers from the Pacific.
On Tuesday, senior officials of the negotiating group met to discuss the negotiation strategies approved by the ministers the day before.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs chief executive Isikeli Mataitoga led the negotiating team and his deputy was Paulo Kautoke from Tonga.
Mr Mataitoga said the meetings were to exchange views and agree on negotiating briefs relating to the technical issues to be discussed during the first formal EPA negotiations between the Pacific (ACP) states and the EU.
"The RNT was also to identify areas where further technical work might be useful, and to facilitate arrangements for the formal EPA negotiations," he said.
Mr Mataitoga indicated that 90 per cent of formal negotiations was not done by ministers but by the senior officials who negotiate the bulk of the agreement.
"It is only when we are stuck that we approach the RNT team," he said.
Mr Mataitoga said they were considering two sets of negotiations this year, three next year and three the following year.
The EPA is the new set of agreement which is expected to be in force by January 1, 2008 after negotiations between Pacific ACP countries and the EU.
EU / WTO
WTO rejects EU tariff plan on bananas
Source: FINANCIAL TIMES (U.K.)
Published: August 1 2005 10:41 | Last updated: August 1 2005 23:48WTO rejects EU tariff plan on bananas
By Raphael Minder
The World Trade Organisation on Monday invalidated European Union plans to overhaul its import rules for bananas, backing a complaint by Latin American producers that argued the common tariff proposed by the EU would cripple their exports to Europe.
However, the decision by the Geneva trade arbiter raises the likelihood that the banana dispute will drag on at least into the autumn and could undermine efforts to complete the Doha round of world trade talks, in which agriculture is a key dossier.
The WTO arbitration panel ruled against a proposed EU banana tariff of €230 ($300, £160) per tonne, saying it would “not maintain total market access” for Latin American suppliers, but did not make clear what it would consider to be an adequate banana tariff. The dispute has underlined the difficulties of opening trade in a sector that has pitted two sets of developing countries against each other.
European import rules have been designed to favour former colonies from Africa and the Caribbean (ACP) region rather than Latin America, where US companies control vast banana plantations. Brussels tabled its proposal last October, arguing that it would not only simplify an existing three-part quota system but also provide a fair compromise between the competing demands of Latin American and ACP producers.
However, the proposal was criticised by both sets of developing countries and challenged before the WTO by Latin American nations led by Ecuador, the world's largest banana producer.
For many developing countries, agriculture is the most important element of the Doha talks, not least since the banana industry employs more than 500,000 workers worldwide.
If no compromise can be found on a new tariff, either side can take the dispute back for a second and final round of arbitration, whose outcome would be binding.
The EU said it now hoped to agree on a solution that would allow new rules for banana imports to come into force in January, as foreseen.
Mariann Fischer Boel, the EU's agriculture commissioner, said: “It has always been our intention that the form of the EU banana import regime would change but that the level of protection would not increase.”
EAST TIMOR
World Bank warns E Timor of potential for corruption
Source: FINANCIAL TIMES (U.K.)
Published: July 27 2005 17:24 | Last updated: July 27 2005 17:24World Bank warns E Timor of potential for corruption
By Shawn Donnan in Jakarta
The World Bank has offered a sober assessment of East Timor's future, warning in a new report that the world's youngest country risks becoming corruption-ridden and resource-dependent.
The report, released this week, came as Mari Alkatiri, East Timor's prime minister, reshuffled his cabinet in an effort, he said, to better address “poverty alleviation” and other issues.
But the report highlights what remain serious long-term issues confronting the country of 800,000, left in ruins in 1999 by the Indonesian military as it withdrew after a United Nations-organised vote for independence.
Revenues from oil and gas fields from the Timor Sea between it and Australia have begun flowing. But in its “country assistance strategy” for the next three years, the World Bank warned that few inroads had been made in developing other sectors and per capita gross domestic product had declined to $366 in 2004, making East Timor one of Asia's poorest countries.
East Timor, the bank said, “is at a juncture where it can consolidate gains and create conditions for sustained growth and poverty reduction or descend down a path of poor governance, continuously increasing poverty and inequality and, possibly, renewed conflict”.
Corruption, the bank said, “is an area of growing concern”. The government had adopted a “statist style” and had “not yet succeeded in engaging constructive critics”. And “internal fault lines” including falling income, rising poverty, high youth unemployment and corruption were now greater threats to stability than the remnants of pro-Indonesian militias behind much of the mayhem in 1999.
In a swipe at international aid efforts, the bank said programmes to build East Timor's capacity to deal with its problems had “not yet met with desired success”. In a written response to the report, Mr Alkatiri defended his government's record on corruption and other areas. “Control [of] the corruption is not only a preoccupation of the World Bank . . . We always try to attack our problems with the best laws and practice(s),” he said.An example, he said, was the decision of East Timor to create a “petroleum fund” to manage income from its natural resources.
ACP/WTO/EU
Big blow for bananas:amaica reviews WTO ruling on EU tariff
Source: THE JAMAICA OBSERVER
Tuesday, August 02, 2005 Big blow for bananas
Jamaica reviews WTO ruling on EU tariff
AP and Observer reports
GENEVA - In a ruling that could hurt Jamaican and Caribbean producers, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) said yesterday that a new EU tariff on imported bananas is illegal, siding with nine Latin American countries who said Brussels' proposal would seriously limit their ability to export the fruit.
A WTO arbitration body backed a claim by the Latin American countries - including Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela - who said the proposed European Union tariff of euro230 (US$279) per ton would have a "devastating effect" on the development of their economies.
PATTERSON. I have already initiated a process of diplomatic action
The report concluded that new tariff "would not result in at least maintaining total market access" for Latin American exporters and queried Brussels' methodology for arriving at the euro230 figure. It did not suggest a new figure.
Yesterday, Jamaica's Prime Minister P J Patterson said his government was actively examining the implications of the WTO ruling.
CLARKE. we have to analyse now in detail what the implications are
"I have already initiated a process of diplomatic action for us to insulate ourselves as far as we can from any adverse effects that will flow from that ruling," Patterson said while addressing yesterday's final day of the Denbigh Agricultural Show in Clarendon.
At the same time, Roger Clarke, Jamaica's agriculture minister, said: "We have to analyse now in detail what the implications are...I understand that they have time to put new proposals on the table, we just have to wait," Clarke told the Observer.
"We will get our people in Brussels and Geneva to look at the situation. I'm sure that at the ambassadorial level we will make whatever initiatives to deal with that," Clarke added.
The EU now has 10 days in which to enter into consultations with the Latin American group, which also includes Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, the arbitrators' report said.
"We will start consultations with interested parties without delay," said EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson. "I hope that everyone will cooperate in finding a mutually acceptable solution within the strict deadline set by the WTO."
If they are unable to agree a new tariff in that time, both parties can then request another arbitration procedure. The process must be completed before the new tariff is due to enter into force January 1, the report said.
"We are currently evaluating the options available for putting into place the new import regime for bananas," Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel added.
Latin American officials in Geneva were not immediately available to comment yesterday, a national holiday in Switzerland.
Earlier this year, the European Union formally proposed an overhaul of its banana import programme at the WTO after its previous system of tariffs and quotas had been ruled illegal, saying the euro230 tariff would strike a balance between the demands of large-scale growers in Latin America and interests of traditional suppliers in Africa and the Caribbean.
Some Caribbean officials criticised the WTO ruling, saying it will hurt the region's vital banana exports by squeezing producers out of the crucial European market.
"The European market will be flooded with cheap bananas against which we will not be able to compete," said Julius Timothy, a former finance minister in the tiny island of Dominica.
Guyana Foreign Trade Minister Clement Rohee, who represents the 15-member Caribbean Community on WTO matters, called the ruling "a terrible blow" to regional countries already facing deep cuts in EU subsidies for sugar producers.
The proposed new duties would apply to Latin American nations. Under the current quota system, Latin American countries can export up to 2.7 million tons of bananas a year at a tariff rate of euro75 (US$91) per ton. Any more than that is subject to a euro680 (US$825) per ton tariff.
Latin American producers had hoped the EU would set a tariff of euro75 (US$91) per ton, while Caribbean producers had pushed for euro275 (US$333) per ton.
Latin American producers and banana companies based in the United States have long complained that EU rules favour Caribbean and African producers. The smaller producers say they risk getting squeezed out of the market.
The nine countries said the tariff failed to comply with the EU's multilateral commitments to guarantee access to the European market.
Latin American bananas currently have around 60 per cent of the market, while African and Caribbean producers have 20 per cent, EU officials have said. Bananas grown in the EU - mostly on Spanish and French islands - account for another 20 per cent.
ACP / WTO /EU
Banana blues - Revised EU tariff ruled illegal - Hall predicts devastation for Ja
Source: THE JAMAICA GLEANER
published: Tuesday | August 2, 2005 Banana blues - Revised EU tariff ruled illegal - Hall predicts devastation for Ja
Ross Sheil and Damion Mitchell, Staff Reporters
THE REVISED European Union (EU) tariff on imported Latin American bananas that continues to favour African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states was yesterday ruled illegal by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Under the tariff set for launch in January 2006, ACP exporters would continue to export duty-free, while Latin American exporters would pay 230 euros (J$17,350) per tonne, which the Latin Americans argued would have a "devastating affect" on their economic development. Exports to the EU from Latin America are currently limited by quota, with a duty per tonne of 75 euros for the first 2.7 million tonnes exported, and 680 euros (J$51,297) per tonne thereafter.
Speaking from the Denbigh agricultural showground in Clarendon yesterday, Dr. Marshall Hall, chairman of the Banana Exporters Association, expressed his dissatisfaction at the WTO ruling. "It is not at all in our favour and we are not happy."
Bananas, stressed Dr. Hall remained important to Jamaica. "We bring in about US$25 million (J$1.55 billion) a year and are employing about 10,000 people. More importantly, the farms of Annotto Bay and Golden Grove will be virtually devastated."
And Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, also speaking from Denbigh, yesterday said: "We are now actually examining the implications of that ruling. I have already initiated a process of diplomatic action for us to insulate ourselves as far as we can from any adverse effects that will flow from that ruling."
The EU had established the regime to protect the banana industry in ACP countries against competition from larger Latin American producers. Most were former colonies, and their banana crop had long received preferential treatment similar to the EU's preferential pricing regime for ACP produced sugar, which it abandoned when the WTO also ruled in favour of complainants.
Dr. Hall, however, believes the EU remained "on our side" and there would be no question of the EU abandoning its support for ACP producers who would continue to work closely together. "We are talking to the EU and we are trying to get a price close to the EU's proposed tariff of 230 euros ($17,350)."
"We will start consultations with interested parties without delay," said EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson. "I hope that everyone will cooperate in finding a mutually acceptable solution within the strict deadline set by the WTO."
The EU has 10 days to reach agreement with the nine Latin American complainants: Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Brazil, Nicaragua and Venezuela. They had argued that the new rate violated the agreement between them and the EU and that the change should "at least maintain" their access to the EU market, which the WTO supported.
LOWER THE TARIFF
This, the latest WTO ruling on the issue also questioned how the EU arrived at its 230 euro charge, albeit without suggesting a new figure. Latin American producers wanted the EU to lower the tariff to 75 euros ($5,658) while ACP producers wanted it increased to 275 euros ($20,745).
The EU had earlier this year announced its replacement to the tariff quota system which the WTO had ruled illegal following the 'Banana Wars' of the 1990s when the WTO ruled the EU's support for ACP countries discriminatory towards the complainants, Latin American producers and United States-based companies. The EU was ordered by the WTO to introduce a tariff-only system by January 1, 2006.
Latin American producers supply about 60 per cent of the EU market, ACP producers 20 per cent and EU producers 20 per cent
ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe dollar hits new low
Source: GUARDIAN UNLIMITED (UK)Tuesday August 2, 2005
Zimbabwe dollar hits new low
Andrew Meldrum in Pretoria
The Zimbabwe dollar tumbled to an all-time low yesterday as it became apparent that President Robert Mugabe had failed to get the billion dollars he sought from China to relieve the country's shortages of fuel, food and power.
One US dollar purchased 45,000 Zimbabwe dollars yesterday on the illegal black market. The official exchange rate is US$1 to Z$17,000, but neither banks nor corporations use it.
Mr Mugabe returned from Beijing over the weekend with pledges from the Chinese government of $6m (£3.4m) for food, a passenger aircraft and 100 computers, according to the state media.
He will now have to go back to South Africa for financial assistance. South African officials have made it clear they will demand substantial political and economic reforms in return.
NIGER
Une réponse tardive et inadaptée
Source: L'HUMANITE (France)
Article paru dans l'édition du 27 juillet 2005. Une réponse tardive et inadaptée
Niger, envoyée spéciale.
« Il est déjà trop tard pour des milliers d’enfants. » Dans son bureau de Niamey, Johanne Sekkenes, chef de mission pour Médecins sans frontières, laisse entrevoir son désarroi. Constatant cette année l’explosion du nombre d’enfants atteints de malnutrition sévère accueillis dans ses centres de santé, l’organisation a tiré en vain la sonnette d’alarme pendant des mois. Malgré la gravité d’une famine qui affecte le Niger, où le niveau de mortalité infantile est déjà d’ordinaire un des plus importants du monde, la décision de distribuer des vivres gratuitement a été prise depuis à peine deux semaines. « Nous savions à quel point la situation était alarmante », reconnaît Paul Vossen, chef de section de la délégation de l’Union européenne à Niamey. Un aveuglement qui pourrait coûter la vie à des milliers d’enfants.
Pluies insuffisantes, invasions de criquets
La crise n’est pourtant pas une surprise. Avant même que les prix des céréales - explosent de 50 %, la combinaison des pluies insuffisantes et des invasions de criquets était l’occasion d’anti- ciper un manque de vivres dans ce pays où une majorité de la population vit tous les ans à la - limite de la sécurité alimentaire. Dès octobre 2004, le Programme alimentaire mondial (PAM) a prévenu qu’au moins 3 millions de Nigériens risquaient de se trouver rapidement dans une situation de grande vulnérabilité. Le mois suivant, le premier ministre nigérien a lancé sans succès un appel discret à la communauté internationale pour 78 000 ton- nes de vivres.
Le dispositif de gestion des crises alimentaires, où siègent conjointement le gouvernement nigérien, les bailleurs (essentiellement France et Union européenne) et certaines institutions internationales, a réagi en pariant sur la multiplication des projets de développement. L’objectif était de permettre aux familles de disposer de sources complémentaires de revenus, à travers un accroissement des programmes déjà existantes, comme les ventes à prix modérés (VPM), les projets « work for food » ou « work for cash » (versement d’un pécule en nature ou en argent en échange de travail dans des projets de développement), et les banques céréalières. Surtout, l’injection massive sur le marché des céréales en VPM devait permettre de faire baisser des prix qui ont atteint cette année un niveau sans précédent. Mais, explique le PAM, faute de fonds versés par les bailleurs pour soutenir ces programmes et compte tenu de la difficulté à se procurer les quantités de céréales voulues dans un marché régional atrophié, les « stratégies préventives d’atténuation de la crise n’ont pas pu être mises en oeuvre ». Les 11 000 tonnes finalement distribuées par le PAM à travers ces divers systèmes ont été largement insuffisantes pour avoir un effet sur les prix du marché et un impact sur l’économie des villages. Les paysans évoquent d’ailleurs toujours l’arrivée de VPM comme un événement bienvenu mais marginal et ils se plaignent de son insuffisance. De plus, l’impact par rapport aux problèmes de malnutrition a été nul puis- que, de l’aveu même des représentants du PAM, les VPM sont restées inaccessibles aux plus vulnérables, qui ne disposent d’aucune réserve financière. Comme l’explique un groupe de femmes du hameau de Saouna, à une vingtaine de kilomètres de la ville de Tahoua, « certains ont pu en profiter dans le village mais si tu n’as pas d’argent, tu n’y as pas accès ».
Donner,vous n’y pensez pas !
Alors qu’en début d’année, il devenait de plus en plus clair que les mesures adoptées avaient un impact nul sur la malnutrition, personne n’a estimé nécessaire de commencer à fournir une aide d’urgence aux familles dont les enfants étaient en danger. Les décideurs extérieurs au pays se sont arc-boutés sur leur credo : ne pas faire de distributions gratuites afin de ne pas perturber les mécanismes du marché, ne pas donner l’habitude de recevoir sans rien faire pour ne pas compromettre l’investissement des populations dans des projets de développement destinés à améliorer leur avenir. « Les distributions gratuites sont la porte ouverte à des choses qui ne sont pas souhaitables », estime encore aujourd’hui Alain Darthenuck, premier adjoint de la délégation de l’UE. Aussi, en dehors de quelques dons marginaux pour alimenter les centres de MSF, il n’était pas question de donner de la nourriture gratuitement aux familles dans le besoin. Cette idéologie a empêché toute modification de la stratégie adoptée. Ainsi, Jean-Noël Gentile, membre de la mission locale du PAM, raconte que, quand il a commencé à évoquer la nécessité de mettre en place parallèlement aux program- mes de développement un volet de prise en charge, la réponse a été : « Ça n’est pas durable. » Une façon de consi- dérer les pertes humaines liées à la crise alimentaire comme des dommages collatéraux.
Le gouvernement nigérien n’a rien fait non plus pour inverser la tendance. Entre le premier appel du premier ministre, peu de temps avant les élections législatives, et son cri d’alarme « angoissé » le 28 mai dernier, il s’est tu. Un silence dont la responsabilité incombe, selon l’opposition nigérienne, au président, Mamadou Tandja. « Il a freiné. Il ne voulait pas que cela se sache parce que, dans nos cultures, les gens attribuent au chef la responsabilité d’une famine », explique Maman Abou, éditeur de presse et membre du Parti nigérien pour la démocratie et le socialisme. Autre avantage pour le pouvoir, la crise a permis une hausse des prix qui a profité aux gros commerçants. Or « les opérateurs économiques sont membres du parti au pouvoir » et ce dernier « ne veut pas frustrer ceux qui ont payé sa campagne électorale », suggère Sidibé Issoufou, secrétaire général de la Confédération démocratique des travailleurs nigériens et membre de la Coalition équité qualité contre la vie chère, une organisation de la société civile qui regroupe associations et syndicats. Quelle qu’en soit la raison, la lenteur du gouvernement à reconnaître publiquement la crise a servi de prétexte aux doutes et aux hésitations des institutions internationales et des bailleurs.
L’urgence de la situation s’impose
La précipitation cède-t-elle désormais la place à l’aveuglement ? « Cela fait seulement peu de temps que nous avons réalisé qu’il s’agissait d’une urgence et nous sommes donc soumis à de nombreuses contraintes », a expliqué jeudi dernier Ginacarlo Cirri, représentant du PAM à Niamey. Selon Seydou Bakari, directeur de la cellule de crise alimentaire (CCA), près de 24 000 tonnes de vivres sont nécessaires, en plus des 9 000 distribués aux enfants et à leurs familles dans les centres de récupération nutritionnelle, pour approvisionner les zones de malnutrition sévère et modérée. Mais les obstacles techniques sont encore légion. Le gouvernement et le PAM disposent de 5 000 tonnes immédiatement disponibles, qu’ils peinent à acheminer dans les régions concernées, faute d’ONG spécialisées dans l’urgence, déjà opérationnelles sur le terrain. Et, une fois ce stock écoulé, la continuité d’approvisionnement est loin d’être assurée. Le premier chargement de 11 000 tonnes de mil acheté par le gouvernement avec l’argent des bailleurs ne devait pas arriver avant lundi au port de Lomé.
Accélérer le processus implique d’y mettre des fonds supplémentaires pour acheter des quantités plus importantes de vivres et affréter des avions pour les acheminer. Mais les bailleurs traînent des pieds. Au-delà de quelques dons symboliques en nature, les pays arabes sont discrets. À peine présents dans le pays à travers quelques ONG, les Américains n’ont pas non plus versé de fonds supplémentaires. Les deux principaux donateurs, l’Union européenne et la France, expliquent de leurs côtés ne pas envisager pour le moment aller au-delà des enveloppes prévues de longue date pour le Niger, soit respectivement 6,3 et 5,5 millions d’euros. Des sommes bien dérisoires pour aider à juguler une crise qui, selon Jan England, coordinateur des affaires humanitaires aux Nations unies, affectent massivement la population infantile. À titre de comparaison, la mission de MSF au Niger représente 12 millions d’euros.
Camille Bauer
OMC / UE / ACP
Bruxelles dérape sur une peau de banane
Source: LIBERATION (France)
lundi 01 août 2005 L'OMC a donné tort à l'union européenne Dans l'interminable guerre de la banane qui oppose l'UE aux producteurs latino-américains.
Par Libération.fr (d'après AFP)
La Commission européenne a pris acte lundi du rejet par l'OMC du tarif douanier prévu par le nouveau régime d'importations des bananes dans l'Union européenne et annoncé qu'elle allait négocier «sans délai» avec les plaignants latino-américains. «Nous allons commencer sans délai les négociations avec les parties intéressées», a commenté le commissaire européen pour le Commerce Peter Mandelson, en souhaitant que «chacun coopérera pour trouver une solution mutuellement acceptable dans le délai restreint fixé par l'OMC».
Dans le jugement rendu lundi, le panel des arbitres de l'OMC a jugé que le droit de douane de 230 euros (279 dollars) par tonne que l'UE veut appliquer sur les importations de bananes en provenance d'Amérique latine était trop élevé pour permettre aux pays latino-américains de maintenir leur part du marché européen et qu'il devait donc être revu à la baisse. Le nouveau régime doit entrer en vigueur le 1er janvier 2006.
Condamnée par l'OMC à modifier un régime mélangeant quotas et tarifs, l'UE avait proposé le tarif de 230 euros pour maintenir les parts de marché en Europe des différents producteurs : ceux de l'Union, des pays ACP (Afrique, Caraïbes, Pacifique) bénéficiant d'un accès privilégié et enfin, les latino-américains exportant la «banane dollar». «Notre intention a toujours été de modifier la forme du régime des importations de bananes européen mais sans augmenter le niveau de protection», a expliqué la commissaire à l'Agriculture Mariann Fischer Boel. «Nous évaluons les options disponibles pour mettre en place le nouveau régime pour les bananes à partir du 1er janvier 2006», a-t-elle dit.
A défaut d'un règlement amiable, ce contentieux interminable pourrait à nouveau perturber les négociations commerciales multilatérales à l'OMC, comme cela avait été le cas en 2001 à Doha lorsque les pays africains avaient pris en otage l'accord sur le lancement du cycle pour que le traitement préférentiel que l'UE leur accorde en vertu de la convention de Cotonou soit garanti. Peter Mandelson a d'ailleurs réaffirmé lundi que les procédures établies par «l'exemption de Cotonou» demeurent «le meilleur moyen de faciliter une solution dans la longue saga de la banane».
NIGER
Une famine aux racines endémiques
Source: LIBERATION (France)
28 juillet 2005 Analyse Une famine aux racines endémiques
Pluviométrie en baisse, invasion de criquets et tergiversations à Niamey ont précipité la crise.
Par Thomas HOFNUNG
Aujourd'hui, comme le dit la géographe Sylvie Brunel (1), «les famines ne tombent pas du ciel». Sauf peut-être au Sahel. Les crises alimentaires contemporaines les plus sévères sont, avant tout, liées à des facteurs politiques. Comme en Corée du Nord, où le dernier régime stalinien de la planète affame sa population, mais aussi au Zimbabwe, où la réforme agraire mise en oeuvre par le régime de Robert Mugabe a précipité l'ancien «grenier à blé» de l'Afrique australe dans le chaos. Dans les années 80, Médecins sans frontières (MSF) avait été expulsé d'Ethiopie pour avoir dénoncé les déplacements forcés de populations par les autorités, à l'origine d'une famine destructrice.
Rien de tel au Niger, un des pays les plus pauvres de la planète, situé dans une région déshéritée, le Sahel. Au cours des trente dernières années, rappelle l'association SOS Sahel, la pluviométrie y a diminué de 30 %, et le désert progressé à vue d'oeil. La crise actuelle résulte de la conjonction exceptionnelle de deux facteurs : un déficit hydrique structurel aggravé par l'invasion des criquets pèlerins à l'été 2004. Elle touche aussi, mais dans une moindre mesure, le Mali et le nord du Burkina Faso.
Petits corps. Dès l'automne, les autorités de Niamey avaient tiré la sonnette d'alarme, relayées par les Nations unies : le pays, disaient-ils, se dirigeait vers une grave crise alimentaire. Mais leur appel n'avait pas été entendu. Il a fallu que les premières images de petits corps décharnés apparaissent à la télévision pour que les bailleurs de fonds débloquent une partie des sommes demandées par les Nations unies. Début 2005, quelques semaines après le tsunami en Asie, le coordonnateur de l'aide humanitaire de l'ONU, Jan Egeland, déclarait craindre un effet boomerang : l'émotion suscitée par la tragédie en Asie risquait, selon lui, d'assécher la générosité internationale envers d'autres pays ou régions en difficulté. Inquiétude, hélas, prémonitoire.
«Nous n'aurions pas dû laisser autant d'enfants mourir au Niger», a récemment déploré le même Jan Egeland. Car, quand elle se mobilise à temps, la communauté internationale peut sauver les populations menacées de famine. En 2002, le pire avait été évité en Afrique australe, où une quarantaine de millions de personnes étaient en danger grâce à la distribution massive et dans les temps de nourriture par le Programme alimentaire mondial (PAM).
Le gouvernement du Niger est-il pour autant exempt de toute critique ? A Niamey, des organisations de la société civile ont stigmatisé son «insouciance», lui reprochant de n'avoir pas su anticiper le drame et de refuser des distributions gratuites de nourriture. Le président de MSF, Jean-Hervé Bradol, l'a accusé dans ces colonnes d'être «main dans la main avec les gros commerçants». «Dès le mois de mars, des marchands locaux ont acheté des denrées à prix modérés, avant de les stocker pour les revendre en faisant une plus-value», confirme un humanitaire. Les autorités ont affirmé ne pas vouloir déstabiliser le marché local. Mais pour Julien Clémençot, de SOS Sahel, le gouvernement a sans doute commis «une erreur de jugement» en sous-estimant l'ampleur de la crise : «Quand les gens meurent de faim, les distributions gratuites s'imposent.»
Poulet bicyclette. En dehors des périodes de crise aiguë, la question de la viabilité d'un marché local n'en reste pas moins cruciale. Selon Sylvie Brunel, «la régulation de la crise alimentaire va se faire par le fait qu'en interne des populations, qui n'ont pas accès à l'alimentation, vont pouvoir retrouver cet accès à la nourriture par le jeu de l'offre et de la demande» (Libération du 14 juin 2002). A cet égard, l'effondrement des cours des produits agricoles en Afrique, en plus du dumping causé par les subventions à l'exportation au Nord, fragilise les pays pauvres et prépare les famines de demain. Au Sénégal, le célèbre «poulet bicyclette» local, concurrencé par le poulet congelé européen moins cher, a disparu des étals, et ruiné des filières entières. La suite est connue : exode rural, pauvreté urbaine et... malnutrition chronique.
(1) L'Afrique, éditions Bréal, 2004.
OMC / UE
Guerre de la banane :l'UE prête à négocier
Source: NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR (France)
02.08.05 | 09:56 Guerre de la banane :
l'UE prête à négocier
L'UE va négocier "sans délai" avec les plaignants latino-américains, après le rejet par l'OMC du tarif douanier pour l'importation des bananes.
L a Commission européenne a pris acte lundi 1er août du rejet par l'OMC du tarif douanier prévu par le nouveau régime d'importations des bananes dans l'Union européenne et annoncé qu'elle allait négocier "sans délai" avec les plaignants latino-américains.
"Nous allons commencer sans délai les négociations avec les parties intéressées", a commenté le commissaire européen pour le Commerce Peter Mandelson, en souhaitant que "chacun coopérera pour trouver une solution mutuellement acceptable dans le délai restreint fixé par l'OMC".
Dans le jugement rendu lundi, le panel des arbitres de l'OMC a jugé que le droit de douane de 230 euros (279 dollars) par tonne que l'UE veut appliquer sur les importations de bananes en provenance d'Amérique latine était trop élevé pour permettre aux pays latino-américains de maintenir leur part du marché européen et qu'il devait donc être revu à la baisse.
Le nouveau régime doit entrer en vigueur le 1er janvier 2006.
Condamnée par l'OMC à modifier un régime mélangeant quotas et tarifs, l'UE avait proposé le tarif de 230 euros pour maintenir les parts de marché en Europe des différents producteurs : ceux de l'Union, des pays ACP (Afrique, Caraïbes, Pacifique) bénéficiant d'un accès privilégié et enfin, les latino-américains exportant la "banane dollar".
La convention de Cotonou
"Notre intention a toujours été de modifier la forme du régime des importations de bananes européen mais sans augmenter le niveau de protection", a expliqué la commissaire à l'Agriculture Mariann Fischer Boel.
"Nous évaluons les options disponibles pour mettre en place le nouveau régime pour les bananes à partir du 1er janvier 2006", a-t-elle dit.
A défaut d'un règlement amiable, ce contentieux interminable pourrait à nouveau perturber les négociations commerciales multilatérales à l'OMC, comme cela avait été le cas en 2001 à Doha lorsque les pays africains avaient pris en otage l'accord sur le lancement du cycle pour que le traitement préférentiel que l'UE leur accorde en vertu de la convention de Cotonou soit garanti.
Peter Mandelson a d'ailleurs réaffirmé lundi que les procédures établies par "l'exemption de Cotonou" demeurent "le meilleur moyen de faciliter une solution dans la longue saga de la banane".
ACP/WTO/EU
EU loses banana war with Latin America at WTO
Source: TODAY ONLINE (Singapore)
Tuesday, August 2, 2005EU loses banana war with Latin America at WTOThe European Union has lost a World Trade Organisation dispute with nine Latin American countries over its planned new tariffs on banana imports.
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A three-member team of WTO arbitrators said the EU's forthcoming revised banana regime, including an import duty of 230 euros (279 dollars) per tonne, would not allow "total market access" to trade partners, according to a WTO ruling released Monday.
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Nine Latin American countries -- Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela -- had challenged the EU at the WTO in March and April. They welcomed the decision Monday.
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"It doesn't surprise us. The arbitrators came to the conclusion that a tariff of 230 euros per tonne is not compatible with the EU's obligations to the WTO," Costa Rica's ambassador to the WTO, Ronald Saborio, told AFP.
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The ruling said the EU's planned change to its banana system "would not result in at least maintaining total market access for MFN (Most Favoured Nation) banana suppliers."
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MFN refers to the WTO's basic principle of non-discrimination between trading partners.
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Saborio said the EU's planned replacement for its controversial quota system next year would be discriminatory for banana producers that are not part of the 25-nation bloc or the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations that have preferential, tariff-free access to European markets.
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"One can't maintain concerns about the EU and ACP to the detriment of Latin American countries," he added.
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The Latin American exporters had argued they would have no chance of maintaining their market share in the EU with the planned levy weighing on the prices of their bananas.
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The challenge had opened a new chapter in the banana war.
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In the late 1990s, Brussels, Washington, which was backing US-based fruit multinationals, and some Latin American countries were locked in a bruising confrontation over the EU's banana barriers, which combined quotas and tariffs.
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That dispute, which shook the global trade body, had culminated in a WTO ruling in 2000 that found the EU quota system illegal. Brussels agreed about a year later to come up with a revised system.
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The European Commission formally notified the global trade watchdog earlier this year that it intended to impose the blanket, 230-euro levy on banana imports to replace its quota system from January 2006.
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Under the current regime, the EU applies a levy of 680 euros per tonne on bananas from Latin America that exceed the quota.
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Although they welcomed the end of the EU quota system, the six Latin American countries were adamant that the proposed new EU duty of 230 euros was too high, prompting their new challenge.
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Saborio told AFP that the Latin American countries would have trouble swallowing a tariff of more than 75 euros per tonne.
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"We don't see how one could go beyond that and allow us access to the market," he said.
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However, Brussels also faces pressure from the ACP grouping, which will preserve tariff-free access for its bananas in the EU, and producers in French-dependent territories in the Caribbean.
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ACP countries, which export about 786,000 tonnes of the fruit a year to the EU, fear the planned 230-euro tariff for their rivals is too low.
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Other trading partners exported more than three million tonnes of bananas to the EU in 2004.
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The Latin American countries intend to hold talks with Brussels about a new duty, Saborio said.
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"Negotiations must start from here to the tenth, but that doesn't mean they have to be concluded within 10 days," he added, indicating that it would take time to find an agreement.
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The EU's mission at the WTO could not be reached for comment on the arbitrators' verdict Monday.
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ACP members Cameroon and Ivory Coast have warned that a ruling against the EU could have serious impact on 500,000 people in their countries who rely directly or indirectly on banana exports for their livelihoods. — AFP
ST KITTS AND NEVIS
St. Kitts and Nevis Parliament to debate resolution on closing sugar industry
Source: ST KITTS AND NEVIS VIBES
JULY 27TH 2005St. Kitts and Nevis Parliament to debate resolution on closing sugar industry
Source: Erasmus Williams
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, JULY 27TH 2005 - Friday's Sitting of the National Assembly of St. Kitts and Nevis will debate a Resolution to officially close the Federations 300-year-old Sugar Industry.
The Resolution to be tabled by St. Kitts and Nevis Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. Cedric Liburd calls for the lifting of the ceiling or cap on bus and taxi operations to allow those in the former sugar workers, who are drivers to be absorbed into the taxi or bus industry.
It will call on the Banks and other financial institutions be encouraged to create special packages for sugar workers with an interest in farming, fishing, and small business and that duty-free concessions be given on the importation of farming tools, equipment, and materials for former sugar workers who take up occupation in the areas of farming and small business related to farming.
The Resolution will also call for relief to be granted from corporation tax and traders tax for a period of five years for small businesses established by former sugar workers.
Relief from consumption tax will also be granted to all fishermen and farmers to stimulate growth and employment in the Agricultural and Fisheries Sectors.
The Resolution will also declare that the artifacts of the Sugar Industry become part of the protected heritage of St. Christopher and Nevis and it shall be an offence to remover without a licence from the Minister, any of these artifacts or to otherwise alienate them from their use as part of the national heritage.
ST KITTS & NEVIS
Don"t cry for sugar: PM Douglas
Source: THE SUN (St Kitts & Nevis)
Wednesday July 27 2005 Don"t cry for sugar: PM Douglas
Sugar workers in St. Kitts/Nevis have been told by Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas they should not shed any tears over the closure of the 300-plus year old industry.
In a meeting at the St. Kitts Sugar Manufacturing Social Centre yesterday, the prime minister said the closure of the industry was inevitable, especially since it had been racking up millions of dollars in debt on an annual basis.
He said the change from sugar in this case was good, even when one took into consideration the effort put into the industry and by extension the development of St. Kitts by those who had spent their "blood, sweat and tears building.
"The sugar industry was like a cancer, trust me. If we did not remove it like a cancer, if we did not close it, then it would continue to fester and spread throughout and destroy the entire economy of St. Kitts/Nevis. We said no, we can"t allow that to happen," Dr. Douglas said.
"And so we have closed the industry after consultation with all groups of persons around this island of St. Kitts. There has been good agreement by all - all political parties, the business community has agreed for us to close it, all sectors of the society have agreed that we need to close the industry," he said.
The prime minister, while promising all workers would be "handsomely compensated," urged those from the Federation to think positively about what they would be able to do once sugar exited the scene officially in a few days.
"We want you to get involved in a number of employment activities where you will employ yourself or a group of you can come together and start your own farm or own small business.
"Those of you who are serious about farming will be allocated, on a lease arrangement, lands that you can farm. All of the necessary equipment and assistance that is needed to start you off will be provided by the department of agriculture free of cost," the prime minister said.
He also encouraged the former sugar workers who were inclined towards bus operations to get vehicles through assistance that would be offered through the Development Bank. The workers will also benefit from relief from various corporate taxes as well as utilities payments.
OMC - UE
Guerre de la banane: l'OMC donne tort à l'Union européenne
Source: TAGEBLATT
Notre édition du Mardi, 02/08/2005 Guerre de la banane: l'OMC donne tort à l'Union européenne
L'Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) a donné tort à l'Union européenne dans le conflit commercial qui l'oppose à des pays d'Amérique latine à propos des importations de bananes dans l'Union, selon un rapport publié lundi.
Les trois experts mandatés par l'OMC ont jugé que le tarif de 230 euros (279 dollars) par tonne que l'UE veut appliquer sur les importations de bananes en provenance d'Amérique latine était trop élevé pour permettre aux pays latino-américains de maintenir leur part du marché européen, conformément aux règles de l'OMC, et qu'il devait donc être revu à la baisse.
Le nouveau système d'importations prévu par l'UE, à partir du 1er janvier 2006, "ne permettrait pas de maintenir au moins un accès total au marché" européen pour les plaignants, conclut le rapport, qui se réfère aux "engagements pris pour l'accès au marché des bananes (par l'UE) dans le cadre de l'OMC".
L'OMC avait été saisie de ce litige en mars et avril derniers par neuf pays latino-américains (Brésil, Costa Rica, Colombie, Equateur, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela), qui jugent le futur tarif trop élevé pour leurs producteurs.
En revanche, les pays du groupe Afrique-Caraïbes-Pacifique (ACP), qui ne seront pas soumis à ce droit de douane, et les producteurs communautaires des Antilles françaises craignent de voir se réduire leur avantage concurrentiel si l'OMC exige un montant tarifaire plus faible.
L'Union européenne a désormais dix jours pour ouvrir des négociations avec les plaignants. Si à l'issue de ces négociations, les Latino-Américains ne sont toujours pas satisfaits, ils pourront à nouveau saisir le même groupe d'arbitres, qui aura 30 jours pour trancher. Le nouveau régime d'importation doit entrer en vigueur le 1er janvier prochain.
Selon l'ambassadeur du Costa Rica à l'OMC Ronald Saborio, les négociations entre Européens et Latino-américains devraient commencer "probablement" avant le 10 août, "mais cela ne veut pas dire qu'elles soient conclus dans 10 jours".
"Cela ne nous a pas surpris", a-t-il déclaré à l'AFP à propos des conclusions des trois experts. "Les arbitres sont arrivés à la conclusion que le tarif de 230 euros n'est pas compatible avec les obligations de l'UE à l'OMC", a-t-il souligné. "Nous avions dit qu'un tel niveau de tarif créerait des problèmes douaniers".
Aux termes du mécanisme actuel, l'UE applique un droit de douane de 680 euros par tonne aux importations hors quotas de bananes d'Amérique latine contre 75 euros par tonne pour les importations sous quotas. Les pays ACP bénéficient d'un accès sans droit de douane à l'intérieur d'un quota de 750.000 tonnes par an.
M. Saborio a estimé difficile pour les pays latino-américains d'accepter un droit de douane supérieur à 75 euros la tonne. "On ne voit pas comment on peut aller au-delà et permettre l'accès au marché pour nous", a-t-il expliqué. Les arrangements entre l'UE et les pays ACP ne doivent pas se faire "au détriment des pays latino-américains", a-t-il affirmé.
Vendredi dernier, le Cameroun et la Côte d'Ivoire avaient averti des "sérieuses conséquences" d'une décision défavorable à l'UE sur les 500.000 personnes vivant directement ou indirectement des exportations de bananes dans leurs deux pays.
Un arbitrage donnant tort à l'UE compromettrait aussi gravement, avaient-ils expliqué, la situation des d'exportateurs d'ananas, de mangues et de papayes dans les pays voisins (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali et Sénégal) qui bénéficient des lignes de transport régulières mises en place pour les exportations de bananes.
AFRICA
Summer of discontent
Jul 28th 2005 | HAVANA | From The Economist Global Agenda
Castro battles power cuts and dissent
FIDEL CASTRO, Cuba's Communist president, had recently promised his long-suffering people that, thanks to support from Venezuela and China, things were finally going to get better. Posters appeared proclaiming Vamos bien! (“we're doing well”). Yet that is not how it seems to many Cubans. Earlier this month, Hurricane Dennis ripped through the island killing 16, the highest toll from such a storm in decades. Over the past fortnight, eight children have died in Havana from illnesses believed to be caused by deteriorating hygiene.
For Cubans, these look like signs that they are slipping into the mire of underdevelopment which they had escaped through massive subsidies from the Soviet Union before its demise in 1991. Since then, the island's infrastructure has received little investment. The result this summer: daily power cuts of up to 18 hours; a water system that leaks more than it delivers; dilapidated and overcrowded homes; cratered roads and scarce public transport; and growing weaknesses in the much-vaunted health and education systems, not to speak of a shortage of insect repellent with which to battle mosquitoes.
Patience is again wearing thin, as it did in the early 1990s. There have been spontaneous protests over power and water shortages. At night, anti-Castro graffiti appear and stones and bottles fly in blacked-out streets. So far, these incidents have been small and local.
Cuba's tiny, divided and repressed dissident movement is trying to take advantage. It has staged several almost unprecedented street demonstrations in Havana this month. They have been squashed: the regime has quickly mobilised larger groups of loyalists to shout down the dissidents. Some 30 opposition members were arrested, though most were soon released.
Mr Castro insisted all was well in a speech on July 26th, a holiday marking the start of his revolution. He claimed that Cuba's economy would grow by 9% this year, despite the black-outs and a 40% fall in sugar production. He promised to end the power cuts within a year, to build 100,000 new homes next year, and said that Chinese buses and railway locomotives were on the way. Maybe. But in their current mood, Cubans want more than promises
MALI
And still they starve
Jul 28th 2005 | TIMBUKTU | From The Economist print edition
Another Saharan country is in dire straits through no fault of its own
A DROUGHT had already scorched the southern edge of the Sahara desert before locusts burst out of the oases around Kidal in Mali last year, settling on cereal crops there and nearby in even more destitute Niger. As a result of a meagre harvest, the cost of millet went up by 30%, sorghum by 50% and maize 60%. In both countries, state and village granaries are low or empty. Officials in Mali's capital, Bamako, reckon that more than 4m in the two countries risk starvation, 1.1m of them in Mali.
The damage locusts did to the scrub grasses on which livestock depend has been even more devastating. Hundreds of herdsmen and tens of thousands of cattle have withered and died on futile treks in search of pasture. Survivors in Mali, whose population is 11m, have gathered in unusually large numbers in the Gourma region, east of Timbuktu, raising tensions there and overgrazing land that, but for the Niger river that sweeps slow and brown in a life-giving arc through Mali, would already be desert. Mali's 1.7m nomads, already among the poorest in the world, have been particularly hard hit. They used to trade a goat for a sack of millet, which now costs four goats.
Mali's minister of finance, Abou Bakar Traoré, can only shake his head sadly. His country is the fourth-poorest in the world, according to the UN, and getting poorer. Brought in from the private sector and with a clean reputation so far, Mr Traoré does not know what to make of promises made at the meeting of the eight rich countries' leaders at Gleneagles in Scotland earlier this month. “I haven't seen anything about debt relief,” he says. “Not a single piece of paper.”
Mali is still paying interest on its debts. Even if they were forgiven, Mr Traoré thinks the benefits would be offset by the high oil price and low price of cotton, Mali's main export. Transport costs in his landlocked country have risen by 15%-plus due to higher fuel costs; civil war in Côte d'Ivoire, to the south, has further raised costs since it has blocked off the route to Abidjan, the usual port for Malian trade. Road and rail links west to Dakar, in Senegal, are ropy, so Mali's lorry drivers face a grinding round trip of 2,000km (1,200 miles) or more through Benin or Togo to get any goods on to the world market.
There are some positives. Mali is run better than most other countries in the region. The European Union, a big donor, likes President Amadou Toumani Touré. A former general who introduced multi-party democracy in 1992 after seizing power in a coup and then stayed out of politics for a decade afterwards, he is still fairly popular, since he seems keener on the welfare of his people than on filling his own wallet. Bamako, sleepy but safe and fairly well run, looks nothing like the capital of the fourth-poorest country in the world. For all the challenges of isolation, drought and famine, the country is peaceful and socially cohesive. Marriage across Mali's tribes is quite common. Except in its desert areas, civil strife is rare.
That may be the country's strongest, and perhaps only, card. As a moderate Muslim country, Mali could have a useful role in helping to find and close down Islamist terrorist camps in the Sahara. Its army is playing its part in a Pentagon Trans-Sahara plan, to be funded with $500m over seven years, to train some 3,000 African commandos for desert and border operations and to link forces in various countries with secure satellite communications. Algeria, Chad, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia are also involved, with Libya perhaps to be added if its relations with the United States improve. Mali hopes that helping to catch terrorists might shame America's administration into slashing the subsidy of $3 billion or so it gives its own cotton growers (many of them Texan) and which helps keeps Mali (and Niger) so poor.
MADAGASCAR
Getting stoned
Jul 28th 2005 | ANTSIRABE | From The Economist print edition
Madagascar must try to reap more of a benefit from its plentiful gemstones
THESE days the vast swathes of brick dirt that gives Madagascar its nickname “the Red Island” are pockmarked by small holes: evidence of the search for sapphires, rubies and other precious stones. Mining accounts for 3% of the country's GDP and 1% of its export revenues, and provides 500,000 seasonal and full-time jobs in a population of about 18m. But if the government improves the miners' and cutters' skills and curbs smuggling and corruption, the Malgaches would benefit a lot more.
Since the discovery of blue sapphires in 1998, boom towns have been springing up on the savannah, luring tens of thousands of miners, prospectors and dealers. But in many ways it is a classic African story of a resource-rich country—with the largest reserves of sapphires on earth—that remains one of the world's poorest. Still, the World Bank hopes that, properly managed, the industry may yield more benefits to ordinary people than elsewhere in Africa, and perhaps bring in as much as $400m a year.
The World Bank approved the Mineral Resources Governance Project in 2003. See also the Bank’s report on the project and Madagascar's energy and mining department (in French).
So the Bank and the government have set up the Mineral Resources Governance Project. It teaches diggers and small traders basic gemology and pricing and trains advanced students to become licensed cutters, so helping local Malgaches to get higher prices for their cut stones and compete against the Thais, who dominate the sapphire market. It may also reduce smuggling.
Until last February, a foreign gem trader had to get his business incorporated in Madagascar in order to export stones. Many traders and jewellers ignored this rule, sometimes sewing gems wrapped in plastic into their underwear to avoid scrutiny at customs. Others simply bribe customs officials. Now the government has abolished the need for in-country incorporation and has eliminated the export tax on cut stones, but will tax rough ones at 2% for export.
Will that reduce illegal trade? An anti-corruption body estimates that 50kg of rough sapphires are smuggled to Thailand every week; a good 90% of people in the mining sector, especially those in authority, are reckoned to be bent. Madagascar's second national convention on fighting corruption has just ended. Delegates said the clean-up must include mining. They have their work cut out.
AFRICA
Deserving cases, getting too little help
Jul 27th 2005 | CAFUNFO, NORTH-EASTERN ANGOLA | From The Economist Global Agenda
Deserving cases, getting too little help
Drought and locust plagues have put several million people at risk of starvation in Mali and Niger. Despite months of alerts from aid agencies, neither country is getting all the aid it needs—Mali especially, as a fairly well-run, moderate Muslim country that is keen to help in the “war on terror”, surely deserves a better response from the rich world
A DROUGHT had already scorched the southern edge of the Sahara desert before locusts burst out of the oases around Kidal in Mali last year, settling on cereal crops there and nearby in even more destitute Niger. As a result of a meagre harvest, the cost of millet went up by 30%, sorghum by 50% and maize 60%. In both countries, state and village granaries are low or empty. Som officials in Mali's capital, Bamako, reckon that 4m in the two countries risk starvation, around 1.1m of them in Mali—around 10% of its population. Mortality for under-five-year-olds, already among the highest in the world at over one in five, has risen to record heights.
The damage locusts did to the scrub grasses on which livestock depend has been even more devastating. Hundreds of herdsmen and tens of thousands of cattle have withered and died on futile treks in search of pasture. Survivors in Mali have gathered in unusually large numbers in the Gourma region, east of Timbuktu, raising tensions there and overgrazing land that, but for the Niger river that sweeps slow and brown in a life-giving arc through Mali, would already be desert. Mali's many nomads, already among the poorest in the world, have been particularly hard hit. They used to trade a goat for a sack of millet, which now costs four goats.
The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) and other international aid agencies have been warning for months of an impending disaster across West Africa, especially in Saharan countries like Niger and Mali. If natural disasters were not enough, several countries’ own emergencies are being made worse by huge numbers of refugees flooding in from conflict-torn neighbours such as Sudan and Côte D'Ivoire. However, despite all the grand pledges made by the rich world’s leaders at the Gleneagles summit early this month, only in the past week or so has a moderately encouraging response begun to be seen. Planes bearing food and other urgent supplies have begun touching down in Niger—but reaching all those facing starvation will be a huge struggle, especially now that the rainy season is beginning, making it far harder to reach remote areas.
At the Gleneagles summit, the Group of Eight rich nations pledged to double their overall aid to roughly $100 billion a year by 2010, with about half of that going to Africa. Anti-poverty campaigners professed themselves pleased with this increase, though some claimed that the delay in new funding would cost millions of lives.
Mali’s finance minister, Abou Bakar Traoré, can only shake his head sadly at his country’s state of affairs. Mali is the fourth-poorest state in the world, according to the UN, and getting poorer. Brought in from the private sector and with a clean reputation so far, Mr Traoré does not know what to make of the promises made at the G8 meeting: “I haven't seen anything about debt relief,” he says. “Not a single piece of paper.”
Mali is still paying interest on its debts. Even if they were forgiven, Mr Traoré thinks the benefits would be offset by the high oil price and low price of cotton, Mali’s main export. Transport costs in his landlocked country have already risen by 15%-plus on the back of higher fuel costs; civil war in Côte d'Ivoire, to the south, has further raised costs since it has blocked off the route to Abidjan, the usual port for Malian trade. Road and rail links to Dakar, in Senegal, to the west, are too ropey, so Mali’s truckers face a grinding round trip of 2,000km (1,200 miles) or more through Benin or Togo to get any goods to the world market.
There are some positives. Mali is run better than most other countries in the region. (Niger is less so, as shown by its government’s recent breaking of a promise to abolish slavery.) The European Union, one of Mali’s biggest donors, thinks well of its president, Amadou Toumani Touré. A former general who introduced multi-party democracy in 1992, after seizing power in a coup, and then stayed out of politics for a decade afterwards, he is still fairly popular, since he is apparently more interested in the welfare of his people than in his own wallet. Bamako, sleepy but fairly well run, with little crime and plenty of sewers and street lighting, looks nothing like the capital of one of the world’s most impoverished countries. For all the challenges of isolation, drought and famine, Mali is peaceful and socially cohesive. Marriage across Mali’s tribes is quite common. Except in its desert areas, civil strife is rare.
That may be the country’s strongest, and perhaps only, card. As a moderate Muslim country, Mali could have a useful role in helping to find and close down Islamist terrorist camps in the Sahara. Its army is playing its part in a Pentagon Trans-Sahara plan, to be funded with $500m over seven years, to train thousands of African commandos for desert and border operations and to link forces in various countries with secure satellite communications. Algeria, Chad, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Nigeria, Morocco and Tunisia are also involved, with Libya perhaps to be added if its relations with the United States improve. Mali hopes that helping to catch terrorists might shame America’s administration into slashing the subsidies of $3 billion or so it gives its own cotton growers (many of them Texan) and which help keeps Mali (and Niger) so poor.
OMC / UE / ACP
La OMC condena a la UE por el conflicto del banano
Fuente: AGENCE FRANCE PRESS
1 de agosto de 2005, 19h33 La OMC condena a la UE por el conflicto del banano
GINEBRA (AFP) - La Organización Mundial de Comercio (OMC) condenó a la Unión Europea en el conflicto comercial que le opone a los países de América Latina sobre las importaciones de banano al mercado comunitario, según un informe publicado este lunes.
Los expertos designados por la OMC juzgaron que el arancel de 230 euros por tonelada que la UE quería imponer a las importaciones de banano procedente de América Latina es demasiado elevada lo que impediría que los países de esta región mantengan su cuota en el mercado europeo, por lo debe ser revisada a la baja.
Nueve países latinoamericanos - Brasil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panamá, Venezuela- recurrieron a la OMC el pasado mes de marzo al considerar que este arancel era demasiado alto para sus productores.
En cambio, los países del grupo África-Caribe-Pacífico (ACP), que no estarán sometidos a este derecho de aduana, y los productores comunitarios de las Antillas francesas temen que se reduzca su ventaja comparativa si la OMC exige un arancel más bajo.
AFRICA
Africa Calls for Strengthening of Private Initiatives for Continental Development
Source: ALL AFRICA
July 26, 2005 Africa Calls for Strengthening of Private Initiatives for Continental Development
UN News Service (New York)
Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Advisory Panel on ways to assist the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) recommended significantly increasing international support for the initiative and unleashing the continent's tremendous development potential by harnessing the creativity and dynamism of its private sector.
Strengthening the private sector, in its widest sense, depends on educating an efficient, supportive and capable public sector and improving economic and political governance, areas which require policy action by the African countries, the 13-member Panel's report says.
The private sector, the role of which is stressed in the report, must be assisted through such measures as providing credit, establishing clear property rights and providing technical assistance, wherever necessary, the Panel says. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank should put greater emphasis on the private sector's role within the framework of national poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs), it adds.
It cautions that reducing trade barriers must be carefully planned and the structure of African trade kept in view. "For instance, a reduction of agricultural subsidies in the European Union and the United States of America could harm, not help, the many African nations that are net importers, rather than exporters, of agricultural goods," the report says.
The reduction of African trade barriers could enable the African nations to benefit from trade between developing countries, it adds.
While the number of bilateral and subregional preferential trade agreements are increasing in Africa, the Panel says the completion of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations is an important priority for African nations and it urges NEPAD to show "fulsome support" for it.
In this regard, to facilitate the completion of the Doha Round, the Panel says NEPAD can make a strong case for both compensatory and short-term, adjustment-oriented aid flows to those African countries seriously affected by the reduced value of their products as they gradually lose their most favoured nation (MFN) status.
On aid, it says: "The Panel fully endorses the call for a substantial increase in aid levels (net of debt relief and humanitarian assistance), in accordance with the commitments made by the Group of Eight (G8) major industrialized countries in Monterrey, Mexico, and the pledge to channel at least one-half of this increase to sub-Saharan Africa."
ST LUCIA
St Lucia's declining banana trade
Source: BBC NEWS Last Updated: Tuesday, 2 August 2005, 11:09 GMT 12:09 UK
St Lucia's declining banana trade
By Guy Ellis
BBC News, St Lucia
Changing trade rules have created social problems for St Lucia
In the drawing room of her modest home in rural St Lucia, Clarissa Dwarkasingh proudly displays a trophy from the island's Department of Gender Affairs "for determination to succeed against all odds".
But on this Emancipation Day, celebrating the end of slavery on Caribbean estates nearly 170 years ago, this 68-year-old grandmother is sad and broken as she laments the rapid decline of the island's once booming banana industry, thanks to something called "globalisation" that she hardly understands.
A banana farmer from the inception of the industry in the 1950s, Mrs Dwarkasingh says bluntly: "We farmers are killing ourselves as though we are slaves. We're working harder today but for less money."
It is a cry that is heard all over the island, once acclaimed as the biggest banana producer in the entire English-speaking Caribbean.
Globalisation and changes in the European market since 1993 have left St Lucia's banana industry in tatters.
We farmers are killing ourselves as though we are slaves. We're working harder today but for less money
Clarissa Dwarkasingh
Monday's ruling by the World Trade Organization that declared a new European Union tariff on bananas illegal.
It favours Latin American producers at the expense of small Caribbean exporters and is bound to hurt St Lucia if it is allowed to stand.
Before the ruling, Agriculture Minister Ignatius Jean had expressed optimism that Caribbean and Latin American producers could pull off a compromise which would delay implementation of a tariff-only system by the EU.
St Lucia's banana exports have declined from 132,000 tons in 1992 to just 42,000 tonnes last year.
The number of banana farmers has also fallen from 10,000 to 1,800 today, as the industry is forced to produce the quality fruit the market demands while facing stronger competition and lower prices.
Market changes
Historically, bananas from St Lucia were exported to Britain under preferential arrangements with former colonies.
Bananas used to be known as 'green gold'
This arrangement was formalised with the first Lome Convention in 1975. But in 1993, the EU began restricting such privileged access and harmonising tariffs and quotas - placing new demands on St Lucian growers and reducing their market share.
Then the US banana company Chiquita challenged the European regime and took its case to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Peter Serieux, general manager of Top Quality Fruit, one of the main banana trading companies here, said all this created a cloud of uncertainty in small banana-producing countries like St Lucia and undermined the confidence of growers in the future of the industry.
Business devastated
"All of a sudden, the prices that farmers were used to earning were drastically reduced, "Mr Serieux added.
"Farmers did not accept that the decline in their economic fortunes was the result of any global behaviour."
In 1993, banana farmers in St Lucia began a series of strikes demanding higher returns. They blocked roads and clashed with police, resulting in two farmers being shot dead.
Before, we earned more money. Now we get nothing. We can't even pay our workers and most times when we pay them we get nothing for ourselves
Clarissa Dwarkasingh
From that time, conditions in the industry have never been the same.
Farmers left the banana business in hordes.
In its heyday, the banana trade put about $750,000 directly into the St Lucian economy every week.
The fruit was widely known as "green gold", as it narrowed the social gap between rural and city folks.
Dealing narcotics
It was bananas that brought prosperity and an improved way of life to Mrs Dwarkasingh and her husband, paying for the education of their eight children.
"Before, we earned more money", she says. "Now we get nothing. We can't even pay our workers and most times when we pay them we get nothing for ourselves."
All the new standards the market has imposed, we have met them, although at greater cost to farmers
Peter Serieux, general manager of Top Quality Fruit Company
Another effect of the decline of bananas has been the hundreds of young men who previously worked the farms but are now unemployed.
Some have turned to dealing in drugs, the only other "commodity" that is able to bring in quick cash the way bananas once did.
But according to Mr Serieux, there have been some positive effects of globalisation.
Those farmers who have stayed in the business, he describes as "hard core and genuine". It is they, he said, who are now producing the quality of bananas that the market is demanding.
"All the new standards the market has imposed, we have met them, although at greater cost to farmers", Serieux said, adding that the future of the industry now seems to lie in exporting under the "fair trade" label.
Despite its negative implications, globalisation is serving to create more efficient banana farmers in countries like St Lucia, enabling them to meet the high standards that the market demands.
But it has also left the island with a trail of social problems to cope with including unemployment, crime, and declining revenue.
ACP/WTO/EU
EU defeat in banana export battle
Source: BBC NEWS Last Updated: Monday, 1 August 2005, 19:00 GMT 20:00 UK
EU defeat in banana export battle
"Banana wars" have been rumbling on since the 1990s
A new European Union tariff on imported bananas has been declared illegal by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The WTO backed a claim brought by Latin American countries, who argued the EU tariff would have a "devastating effect" on their economies and exports.
Under a EU system set for launch in January 2006, imports faced a tariff of 230 euros ($280.30; £158.50) a tonne.
The new tariff had aimed to safeguard exports from countries in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group.
Most were former colonies, and for years their banana crop had received preferential treatment.
Currently, Latin American exports to the EU are limited, with the duty per tonne set at 75 euros for the first 2.7 million tonnes of exports, rising after that to 680 euros per tonne.
Under the new regime, ACP producers would have continued to export bananas duty-free.
Proposals to replace quotas with higher duties would have cost producers more and threatened livelihoods, the group of Latin American countries had claimed.
'Market access'
A report by the WTO said the new tariff would "would not result in at least maintaining total market access" for Latin American exporters.
It also questioned the way in which EU arrived at its decision to impose the 230 euros charge, but it did not suggest a new figure.
Latin American producers welcomed the decision, and Brussels now has 10 days to enter discussions with the nine Latin American exporters.
"We will start consultations with interested parties without delay," EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said.
"I hope that everyone will cooperate in finding a mutually acceptable solution within the strict deadline set by the WTO."
Banana wars
Meanwhile a statement from the European Commission added that if the two sides fail to reach agreement it would request a second round of arbitration.
Following a series of rows in the 1990s - known as the "banana wars" - the EU was forced to introduce a new set of tariffs for the fruit by 1 January 2006, as the present system was regarded as discriminatory towards US and Latin American companies.
However, in the latest WTO case the Latin American producers - Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Brazil, Nicaragua and Venezuela - argued the new rate broke a WTO-brokered accord that the changes should "at least maintain" their access to the EU market.
Latin American producers currently make up about 60% of the market, with African and Caribbean producers taking a further 20%.
EU-grown bananas - mainly from Spanish and French islands - make up the final 20%.
ACP /CARIBBEAN
CARRIBBEAN, AFRICA & PACIFIC BANANAS LATEST WOE
Source: HARDBEAT NEWS.COM
NEW YORK, N.Y., Tues. Aug. 2, 2005,CARRIBBEAN, AFRICA & PACIFIC BANANAS LATEST WOEDiscriminatory is how the World Trade Organization yesterday described the European Union’s push to lift tariffs on Latin American bananas from 75 euros to 230 euros per ton from the beginning of next year.
The ruling came following complaints by nine Latin American nations, including Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela against the EU’s decision, which it said was being done to give privileged access to African, Caribbean and Pacific bananas.
But the Latin American giants argued that the tariff increase would deny them reasonable access to the European market and hundreds of thousands of jobs could be jeopardized.
Yesterday, the WTO agreed. European Commission officials, in responding to the ruling, said they would "study carefully the arbitrators' report and examine available options for taking this process forward.”
If there is no compromise, either side can take the dispute back for a second and final round of arbitration.
For Caribbean banana producers, the ruling is a major blow, especially since the Caribbean Banana Exporters Association has stated that because of overriding problems of size, climate and terrain, Caribbean banana producers cannot compete on price with the vast, flat plantations and more fertile soil of Latin America.
BACKGROUND ON 'THE WAR' ACCORDING TO CBEA
Caribbean banana production, CBEA said, was able to flourish under the protective regime historically operated by the UK for their benefit.
These arrangements continued following UK accession to the European Community, alongside similar arrangements operated by France. These traditional benefits were guaranteed under successive Lomé Conventions, running from 1975 to 2000, between the EU and ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries.
The EU was committed to adopting a single market for all products by 1993. It introduced a Community-wide banana import regime from 1 July 1993, which sought to maintain traditional benefits for the Caribbean and other ACP countries through a system of tariff quotas, which was designed to maintain market stability by limiting imports.
A complex license allocation system also provided an element of cross-subsidization to compensate for the much higher costs of production in ACP countries than in Latin America.
Following a series of challenges by the USA and certain Latin American countries in the GATT and the WTO, that regime was amended 3 times, each time entailing a significant reduction in the support provided for ACP producers.
In April 2001 the EU finally reached agreement with the USA and Ecuador, the main critics of the previous regime, on a two-stage end to the dispute. This provided for an amended quota regime to apply to the end of 2005; and thereafter for only a flat rate tariff, at a level still to be negotiated. – Hardbeatnews.com
SUDAN
Death of ex-rebel leader Garang rocks Sudan
Source: REUTERS (UK)
Monday August 1, 11:28 AM
Death of ex-rebel leader Garang rocks Sudan
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - John Garang, who led Sudan's southern rebels for two decades before making peace and joining the government he fought, has died in a helicopter crash, sparking riots and fears for hard-won stability.
Garang, six of his companions and a crew of seven died over the weekend after the Ugandan presidential helicopter he was travelling in crashed, Sudanese officials said on Monday.
Members of Garang's southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the government in Khartoum -- bitter enemies during a 21-year war that ended in January -- both vowed to maintain the peace agreement Garang had helped create.
But as news of his death was confirmed, thousands of Garang's southern Sudanese supporters took to the streets of Khartoum in the north, wielding knives and bars, looting shops, starting fires and clashing with police.
"They are beating anybody they see who looks like they are Arab," Swayd Abdullah, a student, told Reuters.
There were reports of violence in the south too.
Garang's death stunned the region, where Sudan's neighbours had joined force to help bring an end to Africa's longest-running civil war.
"It's shocking -- the loss of a visionary leader," Kenya's Lt. Gen. Lazarus Sumbeiywo, who was the chief mediator in the Sudan peace talks, told Reuters.
"My prayer is that the Sudanese will remain level-headed."
Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir expressed confidence the power-sharing peace accord would remain intact.
"We are confident that the peace agreement will proceed as it was planned and drawn up and that the future of Sudan will remain a trust in our hearts and the hearts of the brothers in the movement (SPLM)," he said in a televised statement.
"VISION FOR PEACE"
At an SPLM news conference in Nairobi, members wept in grief. "Sudan has lost its loved son Dr. John Garang," deputy leader and presumed successor Salva Kiir Mayardit said.
"We in the SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army) and SPLM will continue his vision for a peaceful Sudan. ... We want to assure everyone that the leadership and all cadres of the SPLM/SPLA will remain united and strive to faithfully implement the comprehensive peace agreement."
SPLM leaders were heading to New Site in southern Sudan for a crisis meeting.
Garang had left Uganda by helicopter late on Saturday to return to Sudan after talks with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Various sources in Uganda and Sudan said it appeared the helicopter had run into bad weather, although there was also some speculation it had run out of fuel.
The helicopter came down near the remote, mountainous border region, with conflicting reports as to which side it fell on.
Garang received a tumultuous welcome in Khartoum when he was sworn in as first vice president on July 9 and signed with his old enemy al-Bashir a new interim constitution.
"My presence here today in Khartoum is a true signal that the war is over," Garang said when he took his oath of office.
He and Bashir were due to form a new government by August 9.
SKILFUL POLITICIAN
Garang was seen as critical to the success of the peace process in the south and many hoped he would work to end Sudan's conflict in Darfur in the west.
"What happens next is very, very interesting. In the worst case scenario, it's a south-south war. In the best case, we will see a democratic overhaul of the SPLM, which many people view currently as something of a dictatorship," said an experienced foreign Sudan observer well connected with the SPLM.
The southern civil war started in 1983 when the Islamist Khartoum government tried to impose Islamic sharia law on the mainly Christian and animist south. Two million people died in the conflict, mainly through hunger and disease.
Oil fuelled the fighting, with southerners laying claim to the oil fields that provide the government with vital revenues.
Garang proved an adept politician as he allied himself with communists, courted U.S. Christian groups and juggled tribal rivalries to hold power even when infighting threatened his grip on the SPLA.
Analysts say Garang has kept control of the estimated 60,000-strong SPLA through a powerful personality and a determination to give southern Sudanese an equal voice in Africa's largest country.
Others say his genial demeanour and academic credentials masked opportunism and ruthless treatment of potential rivals.
The peace deal Garang signed gives roughly half Sudan's oil wealth to the south. It also gives the south the right to secede after the six-year interim period.
CARIBBEAN :
SUGAR FUTURE MAY STILL BE SWEET
Source: TERRAVIVA-EUROPE
July 27, 2005 CARIBBEAN : SUGAR FUTURE MAY STILL BE SWEET
Stefania Bianchi
Tuesday, 2 August 2005
by Dionne Jackson Miller
KINGSTON (IPS) - Even as Caribbean diplomats battle for concessions to proposed drastic changes to the European Union's sugar price regime, the region's governments are hustling to ensure the industry's continued survival.
But industry players are itching to see the deliberations stop, and action begin.
The European Union is proposing a 40 percent cut in the price paid to its domestic beet producers, as well as to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) sugar producers, over a five-year period. The proposal has alarmed Caribbean producers, who say that they stand to lose millions as a result, further impoverishing tiny states already battered by the forces of globalisation.
The small island of St. Kitts recently stopped production of raw sugar, and is hoping to develop industries based on sugar instead.
In Jamaica, officials are now poring over a strategic plan for the future of the sugar industry and Prime Minister Percival Patterson is expected to make a major statement on the matter in October.
But with the clock ticking and implementation of a new EU sugar regime likely in another two years, industry players are chafing at the bit at the Jamaican government's delay in issuing a concrete plan for the future of sugar production.
Allan Rickards chairs the Jamaica All Island Cane Farmers Association, and says farmers are ready for plans to be unveiled.
”Whatever is going to be the shape of the industry, the worst case scenario is that government will say we are only going to be producing sugar for the local market and for the immediate (EU) market, (that is) 200,000 tonnes,” he told IPS.
”Well, this year we produced 125,000, so whatever the scenario, we're going to have to plant more cane. People are prepared to do it provided the bureaucracy doesn't choke their ardour, which has been the case in previous attempts,” he said.
That ardour will be needed as there is a lot of work to do and a lot of jobs at stake. The Jamaican government estimates that 40,000 people, mostly small farmers, are directly employed by the sugar industry, and many more are indirectly employed.
A strategic report prepared by the Planning Institute of Jamaica recommends that the industry be diversified into ”a sugar cane-based industry producing a variety of products such as raw and refined sugar, molasses and rum, ethanol and energy.”
The report suggests that if the government goes ahead with the establishment of a sugar refinery, an additional 83,000 tonnes of raw sugar would be needed, meaning additional production by an industry that achieved only 125,000 tonnes this year, short of its 200,000 tonne target. Low farm and factory productivity have long been the bugbears of the industry.
It is understandable, therefore, that Rickards is stressing the importance of an expedited replanting programme, but says improved factory efficiency has to be a part of the equation.
Trade unionist Norman DaCosta likes the sound of the proposals, but is less than optimistic about their implementation.
”The plans are excellent as plans go, but in this country, unfortunately, we have a reputation for making grand and elaborate plans, and too often the arrangement falls not too far beyond the planning stages, so I'm hoping that this time around they will really make a concerted effort to bring those plans to fruition,” he told IPS.
DaCosta believes that despite the economic problems that the changing European Union sugar regime will inevitably bring, it has had the positive effect of galvanising those running the sugar industries in the region.
”The management for the most part became cocooned in complacency, and there was very little by way of innovation, there was very little by way of creativity,” he said, adding that the guaranteed EU price regime ”lulled the management into a false sense of security.”
He wants to see special emphasis on training sugar workers to ensure that those able to make the transition to a more high-tech workplace will be prepared to do so.
But none of that will happen, he stresses, without the political will.
”That is what we need more than ever, the political will to get this going and to get it going pronto. Time is of the essence, the rest of the world is not going to be waiting for us,” DaCosta said.
The political will, or lack thereof, of Caribbean governments is also preoccupying the chairman of the Sugar Association of the Caribbean, Karl James -- especially since the warnings of people like him were ignored until recently, he says.
”It's only in recent years, maybe four years now, that there has been this acceptance that we really need to do more than just (produce) sugar and molasses,” he said in an interview with IPS, citing contrasting examples of inertia in the region.
”Many of us were just doing the raw sugar because you had a set market for it,” he explained. ”The Caribbean consumes 180,000 tonnes of refined sugar, we only refine 60 (thousand) in Trinidad. We had a refinery in Jamaica, we closed it down because the technology was wrong, we (didn't) replace it with appropriate technology.”
But he points to encouraging developments such as Guyana's move to build a new refinery, and Belize's plans to forge ahead with co-generation of energy, that is, the production of energy from heat produced during factory processes. The recommendations of Jamaica's Planning Institute, if implemented, can work at Jamaica's seven sugar-producing factories, James says, but the key is to move quickly.
”The unfortunate thing is because a lot of what happens in the sugar industry in the Caribbean rests on government policy and decisions, I'm waiting to see which government takes the decision,” James said.
”Guyana has already taken the decision, they are going for co-generation and into expanding production, (and) refining, and once they get into refining there are a whole range of products you can get into.”
”The government has taken a decision in St. Kitts, Trinidad is ambivalent, they're not sure where they're going, and Belize is already well ahead in co-generation, they're about to start their co-generation plant, so it depends on the decision making, how quick it is. You just stop talking, it's time to act, and you act and you move,” he concluded.
(END)
NIGER
AID DELIVERY PROVES A CHALLENGE
Source: TERRAVIVA-EUROPE
Thursday, 28 July 2005 NIGER : AID DELIVERY PROVES A CHALLENGE
by Stefania Bianchi
BRUSSELS (IPS) - The European Union says one of the biggest challenges facing donors pledging aid to the drought-hit African country of Niger is the lack of aid agencies in the country.
The European Commission, the European Union (EU) executive, says that added to the problems of food shortages, drought and the infestation of locusts in the west African country, donors are also faced with ”aggravating issues” such as poor infrastructure in the country and a lack of partners on the ground.
”One of the biggest problems is that Niger is not a common playground for non-governmental organisations for a number of reasons -- it is the second poorest country in the world, it is a huge country with a very nasty climate, and there also many administrative problems. This means that it is very poor conditions for non-governmental organisation staff,” Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, Commission spokesperson for development, told IPS Tuesday (Jul. 26).
Tardio says that although money may be available to feed the millions of people dying of starvation in the country, it is not easy to ensure that such funds get through to those who need them most.
”Sometimes we have the ways and means but it has been very difficult for us to get financing proposals even though there are budget lines which would allow us to take action. We have been trying to mobilise these lines and we are trying to highlight how difficult it is to implement humanitarian aid,” he said.
”The problem is that many NGOs are not geared for emergency situations as most of them work on long-term development issues,” Steffen Stenberg from the EU's humanitarian office (ECHO) told media representatives Tuesday. ”This means that it is not easy for them to go into emergency mode.”
Landlocked Niger with a population close to 12 million is now suffering one of its worst famines in recent times, which is threatening some 3.6 million people in west Africa. The country borders Algeria and Libya to the north, Chad to the east, Nigeria and Benin in the south and Burkina Faso and Mali to the west.
Jan Egeland, the UN humanitarian chief warned last week that the African nation is suffering ”an acute humanitarian crisis in which children are dying because the world community has ignored appeals for urgent aid.”
Egland says 2.5 million people in Niger are in desperate need of food, including 800,000 children who are malnourished.
The United Nations first appealed for assistance for Niger last November and got almost no response. Another appeal for 13.2million euros (16 million dollars) in March brought approximately 0.83 million euros (1 million dollars).
The latest appeal on May 25 for 25 million euros (30 million dollars) has received about 8.3 million euros (10 million dollars), but Egland says ”it's still too little.” The famine was predicted more than six months ago.
The EU executive insisted Tuesday that the bloc had already set off the alarm about this approaching crisis at the beginning of the year, and that it was among the first international organisations to respond to a United Nations appeal in May by donating 4.6 million euros (5.5 million dollars). Commission officials say more money is likely to follow for Niger later this month.
”We also have a pipeline of new funding applications for aid to the country which have been signed by EU development commissioner Louis Michel and we expect a final decision by the Commission in a week or two to donate a further 1.7 million euros to Niger in the near future,” Stenberg said.
But Stenberg expressed concern how such donor pledges may be spent.
”We seem to be all right for funding at this time, so we should concentrate on looking at long term financing. There is also a question of how to implement such funding. If you don't have the means of implementation you can throw all the money at a crisis but you don't get anywhere, so we will have to look at the UN's capacities to implement donations.”
Tardio also warns that while emergency aid for the starving people is important, a long-term solution for the food crisis must be found.
”We are stressing that direct aid is essential but food security is more important. We are trying to support operations that will allow food to be stored in various regions so people can have easy access to food in the long-term,” he said.
The combination of locust damage and drought is also affecting Mauritania, Mali and Burkina Faso.
The UN warns that in neighbouring Mali, some 1.1 million people will need food aid this year, while in northern Burkina Faso some 500,000 people are in need of food aid, and people are leaving their homes in search of food.
Further crises are said to be looming in other parts of Africa, including Ethiopia, Kenya and Eritrea.
The EU also provided 8.5 million euros (10.3 million dollars) in aid to Ethiopia and Eritrea Tuesday to fight the threat of famine. The aid will go towards medicine, water supplies, nutritional assistance and livestock support. (END)
OMC / EU / ACP
L’OMC donne tort aux Européens sur la banane
Source: RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONALE
Dernière mise à jour le 02/08/2005 à 10:58 (heure de Paris) L’OMC donne tort aux Européens sur la banane
L'Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) a donné raison aux pays d'Amérique latine à propos des importations de bananes dans l’Union. En cause, le droit de douane de 230 euros imposé par les Vingt-cinq aux producteurs de banane. Les pays latino-américains avaient saisi l’OMC car ils jugeaient le tarif européen trop élevé. Le montant devra être revu à la baisse. Bruxelles a dix jours pour proposer un droit de douane plus faible.
Les arbitres de l'Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) ont donné tort à l’Union européenne dans le litige qui l’oppose aux pays d’Amérique latine à propos des droits de douane applicables aux importations de bananes dans l’Union. Les experts mandatés par l’OMC estiment que le nouveau régime d’importation imposé par Bruxelles à partir du 1er janvier prochain n’est pas conforme aux règles du libre-échange. «Le nouveau système prévu par l’UE en 2006 ne permettrait pas de maintenir au moins un accès total au marché européen pour les pays latino-américains», conclut le rapport de l’OMC publié lundi 1er août.
A la demande de l’Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC), l’Europe s’est, en effet, engagée à mettre fin à son système complexe d'importation fait de quotas et de droits de douanes différenciés qui, pour l’heure, favorise largement les producteurs des départements français d’outre-mer et ceux du groupe Afrique-Caraibes-Pacifique (ACP), face aux producteurs de «bananes dollars» d’Amérique latine. Ce système actuel permet ainsi de protéger l’accès des bananes du groupe ACP à hauteur de 20% du marché européen et autant pour les bananes communautaires.
«Des sérieuses conséquences»
Ces quotas réservés disparaîtront le 1er janvier 2006 pour être remplacés par un régime purement tarifaire. Chacun vendra ce qu’il pourra. Les pays producteurs d'Amérique latine, pourront exporter sans quotas vers l'Europe, à condition de payer un droit de douane. Pour maintenir les équilibres actuels, l'Union européen
