Press review - TEMPLATE

National Planning Minister Fred Fono said the world's eight richest nations last week agreed to write off more than $A50 billion in African debts but the write-off should also include states in the Caribbean and Pacific.

Some countries in those regions were among the least developed nations in the world with small and fragile economies which were marginalised when it came to globalisation and international trade, Fono said.

Therefore, the European Union through its connection with the G8 Group of countries, should consider relooking at the notion of writing off outstanding debts of all Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

Such debt relief would greatly assist ACP countries in their development efforts and help improve the livelihoods of their people, Fono said.

ACP/EU
JEU sugar reforms face baptism of fire

Source: BUSINESS REPORT (South Africa)

July 18, 2005

JEU sugar reforms face baptism of fire
By Philippe Ries

Brussels - Controversial European Commission plans to reform the sugar industry are due to face their first major test today when EU farm ministers meet to debate them in Brussels, with sugar growers protesting in the streets.

The reforms became necessary after the World Trade Organisation declared the EU policies - which date back to 1968 - illegal, based on a complaint from Australia, Brazil and Thailand.

Under current rules, 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 global market price.

The European Commission's plan is to cut the guaranteed price by 39 percent over two years from 2007 and offer a voluntary compensation scheme for producers forced out of business by the price cut.

But the reform is likely to hit the sugar sector in 18 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, or the so-called ACP countries, which also benefit from the preferred price system. They claim they will lose about e400 million (about R3.25 billion) a year if the measures are adopted.

It is out of the question that the EU agriculture ministers, due to meet in informal council today, will give the green light to the reform plans.

"There is a blocking minority of eight states," said an official close to the dossier. "But eight out of 25 is quite a good start for an ambitious programme." The commission says it is hoping to get the go-ahead in November.

The eight - Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Lithuania, Portugal and Spain - fear that the reform will see their sugar beet farms disappear, giving the advantage to more competitive states like France and Germany.

The commission is offering to compensate producers 60 percent of their losses incurred by the drop in the guaranteed price, but it does not hide that it is trying to get rid of the poorer performers.

"We are well placed to help producers and farmers who would like to leave the sector in an orderly and socially acceptable manner," EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said last month.

While the commission is offering e40 million to help ACP producers, the reform plans will mean far more in losses.

Mauritian foreign minister Madan Dulloo, whose country is the ACP spokesperson on the sugar dossier, said the states "depend heavily on their exports of sugar to the EU market to meet their food requirements".

"Hence this predictable source of revenue, if it were to disappear, would have very serious implications for food security," he said.

In Brussels, 5 000 producers are expected to demonstrate to call for guarantees for their future. They claim that about 120 000 of the bloc's 320 000 growers will disappear in the next two to three years.

AFRICA / MAURITIUS
Mauritius to lobby hard for Agoa pact extension

Source: BUSINESS REPORT (South Africa)

July 18, 2005

Mauritius to lobby hard for Agoa pact extension

Port Louis - Mauritius would negotiate hard for an extension of preferential access for its textiles in the US market at US-Africa trade talks this week, officials said at the weekend.

The Indian Ocean island will lobby for the extension of an accord giving sub-Saharan African nations including Mauritius duty-free import status under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), a trade agreement between the US and African countries.

Under the pact, countries classified as least developed are permitted to import raw materials from countries not participating in the agreement, and still receive tax-free status in the US.

In the case of Mauritius, this concession on sourcing third country fabric expires on September 30, while for other countries it expires in 2007.

After the concession runs out, cloth would have to be imported from the US, where it is too expensive, or from other Agoa countries, which don't make enough of it. Now African producers tend to buy material cheaply from Asian countries.

"It is very important for the industry to obtain an extension of this derogation as it will provide a breathing space that is very much needed," said Maurice Vigier de la Tour, chairman of the Mauritius-US Business Association, who will attend the talks in Senegal from today until Wednesday. "The newly born African textile and garment industry cannot compete with China, India or Pakistan.

"Thousands of jobs have been lost in Mauritius, Lesotho and Kenya. We need a preferential treatment for a longer time," Vigier de la Tour said.

Sub-Saharan African states have seen their textile industries grow sharply in the past five years due to Agoa, which provides the poor countries with duty- and quota-free access to the $11 trillion (R72 trillion) US market.

But that advantage is under threat due to a surge in textile imports from China and other Asian countries, which have increased exports to the US and Europe after the end of a global quota system on January 1.

AFRICA
Single currency should follow SA, Botswana lead - Mboweni

Source: BUSINESS REPORT (South Africa)

July 14, 2005

Single currency should follow SA, Botswana lead - Mboweni
By Adile Ntingi

Johannesburg - In what could be interpreted as a demonstration of economic superiority, the continent's wealthiest economy, South Africa, and diamond-rich Botswana would play a leading role in the creation of a single currency for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni hinted yesterday.

Speaking at the Star-Safmarine breakfast held at the Johannesburg Country Club, Mboweni said that a currency for the region should be based on South Africa's rand and Botswana's pula because of the two countries' economic dominance in southern Africa

"The currencies in SADC will have to converge primarily around the South African rand and Botswana's pula. At the moment, a number of SADC countries accept the rand as a currency, even though it is not legal tender," said Mboweni.

Mboweni said SADC member states had set themselves a four-stage build-up to the single currency, which would involve countries subjecting themselves to strict macroeconomic policies aimed at lowering inflation and budget deficits, while boosting economic growth.

The road map to the adoption of the single currency by 2016 would first involve establishing a free trade area in 2008, followed by the creation of a customs union in 2010 and a common market area by 2015.

When the countries eventually form the common currency in 2016, the inflation rate and the budget deficit (as a percentage of the gross domestic product) should be 3 percent or below for countries to qualify.

"Failure to achieve the agreed targets would mean automatic exclusion from joining the single currency," Mboweni said.

However, he warned that SADC states should proceed carefully and avoid rushing into forming the common currency to prevent the problems that plagued the EU this year after its members France and the Netherlands rejected constitutional reforms designed to improve and quicken decision making.

"We need to take our time and not hurry. We must also be strict about macroeconomic convergence criteria, and, thirdly, we must ensure that we inform our citizens," Mboweni said.

SADC is a 13-state regional bloc, comprising South Africa, Botswana, Angola, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Namibia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Tanzania.

Mboweni said he believed the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), which is made up of nations from the SADC and the East African Community, should be closed down as its dual membership was slowing progress towards regional integration.

"I think Comesa is a waste of money and time," said Mboweni.

BARBADOS
Region needs to keep abreast of trade challenges

Source: BARBADOS ADVOCATE

Web Posted - Mon Jul 14 2005

Region needs to keep abreast of trade challenges

CARIBBEAN rum and rice could be the next commodities on the block for action by the Europeans. That's the view of Kerrie Symmonds, Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. His comments came as the region begins to come to grips with the losses occasioned by a price cut on ACP sugar sold to the EU. I suspect that the challenge will be mounted against both rum and rice in due course,the Minister said in an interview with Business Monday.

We are prepared for those challenges,Symmonds further remarked.

The West Indies Rum and Spirit Producers Association has been doing a lot of research, but the point is that we are not going to enjoy terms of trade which are resting on preferential treatment the way we used to enjoy, Symmonds said, adding that once this is accepted and there is an understanding that competition is healthy and can make producers more efficient, the question is how best to restructure.

Caribbean countries have been enduring some economic setbacks in the wake of rulings by the World Trade Organisation that preferential arrangements for ACP bananas and sugar are illegal. More recently, the EU has signalled it would be carrying out reforms to its Common Agricultural Policy and that it intends to cut by 39 per cent the price it pays for ACP sugar.

However, while maintaining that sugar shipments will continue, the EU has also promised a package of assistance to help those countries affected by the price cut to undertake economic reforms.

Symmonds agreed the decision by the European Union to slash the sugar price was insensitive. He reasoned there had to be an understanding that the EU may be doing fatal damage to part of the Caribbean economy by way of the cuts inflicted.

The minister said that the economies of St. Vincent and St. Lucia were hit hard as a consequence of the EU action with respect to bananas.

With respect to what they are proposing to do with sugar, again, all of the sugar producing states of CARICOM have felt the pinch. What we would now be aiming to achieve as part of the negotiations is a package which seeks to compensate for some of the shortfall, he pointed out.

He said Barbados had already took a decision to move its sugar cane sector in the direction of producing a wide range of products rather than just sugar. The minister mentioned that technical studies are at an advanced stage on how Barbados can produce fuel, and other products from the sugar cane.

So we had taken a positive decision that we will not rely on the exportation of sugar, so the price cut will not affect us as fundamentally as the way it would Guyana,the Minister said.

He further explained that a decision still had to be made with respect to quotas which are available as a result of St. Kitts and Nevis getting out of sugar and the reduced ones from Barbados.

Our preferred option is that it goes to another country within CARICOM, he said, while noting that the issue is still subject to the negotiation process.

We have to be, in the development of a single economy, to be saying there are certain areas of comparative advantage which some countries have. Guyana has a comparative advantage in sugar and if it is going to continue to produce sugar, then quotas given up in respect of Barbados and St. Kitts ought not to be going to enhance the economies of the Pacific, but rather the economies of the Caribbean.

UN / AFRICA
Ministers at odds over UN bids

Source: FINANCIAL TIMES (U.K.)

Published: July 18 2005 03:00 | Last updated: July 18 2005 03:00

Ministers at odds over UN bids
By Mark Turner

The foreign ministers of Germany, India, Japan and Brazil failed to reach agreement yesterday with their counterparts from the African Union on their differing bids for new permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council.

But the ministers, meeting in New York, said talks would continue this week, ahead of another meeting in Geneva on July 25. The group of four said that unless they reached a deal with the 53-member African Union, both proposals would fail. But they also claimed there was still room for agreement.

"It's not possible for any group to get two-thirds by itself," said Natwar Singh, the Indian foreign minister, referring to the necessary majority within the 191-member UN general assembly for Security Council reform to succeed. "We have to find a way for our differences not only to narrow, but to disappear." Mark Turner, United Nation

UN / AFRICA
Uzbekistan spared as EU ministers pile diplomatic pressure on Syria, Zimbabwe

Source: FINANCIAL TIMES (U.K.)

Published: July 18 2005 03:00 | Last updated: July 18 2005 03:00

Uzbekistan spared as EU ministers pile diplomatic pressure on Syria, Zimbabwe
By Daniel Dombey in Brussels

European Union foreign ministers will today agree to increase diplomatic pressure on Syria and Zimbabwe, but are set to disappoint human rights groups by taking no significant new action against Uzbekistan, which is resisting calls for an international inquiry into its violent suppression of an uprising in May.

The EU wants Syria to end all interference in Lebanon, crack down on insurgents entering Iraq and end its backing for anti-Israeli groups. Ministers are also worried about Zimbab-we's human rights record.

In the first meeting chaired by Jack Straw, British foreign minister, under the British presidency of the EU, the ministers are set to issue a declaration firmly in line with UK policy on Damascus and Harare.

On Syria and Lebanon, the ministers' conclusions build on an international consensus, developed by the US and France.

Echoing a series of statements by Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, the draft conclusions also call on Syria to increase security on its border with Iraq and end its backing for groups that oppose the Middle East peace process.

The foreign ministers will also condemn Zimbabwe's shantytown demolition programme, which they say is an issue of "deepest concern" that has caused "great human suffering". Some 300,000 people are thought to have lost homes because of the wrecking programme.

The ministers are also likely to call on the African Union to use its influence to stop the programme. Many European diplomats have been disappointed that South Africa, Zimbabwe's neighbour, has not put more pressure on Harare. The ministers will call for a review of sanctions on Zimbabwe to see if they need to be strengthened.

The draft conclusions on Uzbekistan fall short of either imposing an arms embargo or suspending the EU's "partnership" agreement with the central Asian country. Instead, they say the EU is "studying possible measures".

"It is deeply disturbing that the ministers have failed to meet the challenge," said Lotte Leicht, director of the Brussels office of Human Rights Watch, the campaigning organisation. "We are going to ministers around Europe and saying you have to show some guts here."

Last month EU foreign ministers gave Uzbekistan until the end of June to "reconsider" its opposition to an international inquiry into the uprising in May, in which some 500 people died. The Uzbek authorities say 187 were killed.

The partnership and co-operation agreement, which refers to the "common values" shared by the EU and Uzbekistan and "the paramount importance . . of human rights", gives the central Asian country trade and economic advantages.

JAMAICA
On with a real discourse on sugar

Source: THE JAMAICA OBSERVER

Monday, July 18, 2005

Sugar lobby continues

Editorial
On with a real discourse on sugar

It has been several weeks since the major players in Jamaica's sugar sector signed off on a report on the industry which was commissioned by the prime minister, Mr Patterson.

Although the document was prepared by the Planning Institute of Jamaica, industry players, by and large agreed with its broad conclusion that Jamaica, in the absence of preferential markets, will find it difficult to survive as a sugar producer. The suggestion, therefore, was for Jamaica to transform its sugar industry from one focused on producing sugar, to one that revolves around the sugar cane producing a myriad of products.

The industry, though, would revolve largely around the production of ethanol, which would be used to displace up to 10 per cent of the gasolene used to power motor vehicles. Molasses for the rum industry, as well as the co-generation of electricity at sugar cane processing facilities, have also been placed on the agenda as possible uses for the product.

It all sounds very good in the broad snippets of discussion which have taken place in public fora. But that is precisely our concern; the discussion so far has been disjointed and piecemeal.

Indeed, the four years which the Europeans have proposed for a near 40 per cent downward adjustment in the price they pay for domestic and ACP sugar is not a far way off.

Jamaican sugar producers have warned that they could hardly survive a price cut that deep; if they are to have a chance, they will require more than a substantial investment to further modernise plants and upgrade fields.

In any event, the future of sugar seems decidedly wobbly, which would place at stake the jobs of over 40,000 people, most of whom are at an age and educational level which make them almost untrainable for any other sector but basic agriculture.

While government and officials talk about the difficulties and continue to lobby in Europe for more time, and economic support, to make the necessary adjustments in the sugar industry, we do not believe that domestically the matter is being handled with the urgency demanded by the circumstances.

Indeed, we are surprised by the fact that in the weeks since the PSOJ completed the sugar report it has not yet been made public by the Jamaican authorities.

It would seem to us that this document should be used to galvanise significant debate about the sugar industry, the ideas for a sugar cane-based sector and, hopefully, to generate national consensus on the way forward.

We, of course, are not proposing management by committee. But sugar farmers, cane cutters, factory hands, community persons and anyone who has a stake in the sector should be part of this discourse, from which the industry may further distill ideas and generate a buy-in.

For no matter what happens, even if there is a conversion to ethanol and other sugar cane-based products, there will be some dislocation in the sector. Jobs will be lost.

It would be a shame, therefore, if at the last minute officials were scrambling to explain to affected persons the cause for their distress and the alternatives that have been proposed.

Please do not assume that this cannot happen. We remind that while the Europeans may be about to breach solemn agreements, we have known for a long time that this change was on the way.

Moreover, this is not the first study on the sugar industry commissioned by this administration. What the government has failed, so far, to do is to mobilise people around the issue at hand. It now has little time to get its house in order.

JAMAICA
Sugar lobby continues Heaven to take case to EU parliament today

Source: THE JAMAICA OBSERVER

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Sugar lobby continues

Heaven to take case to EU parliament today
JIS

EXECUTIVE chairman of the Sugar Industry Authority (SIA) ambassador Derrick Heaven will be addressing the European Parliament today, to give the response of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) to the sugar reform plan.

The European Union plans to implement a phased 39 per cent cut in the price paid for sugar from ACP countries, starting July 2006.

Speaking in London Monday, two days ahead of his presentation, Heaven said the EU Parliament asked him to appear as an "expert witness" on behalf of the ACP, for a clearer grasp of the implications of the proposed reforms.

The sugar cuts are expected over three years, 2006 to 2008. But, the final decision is to be made November by the EU's Council of Ministers.

The sugar ambassador also updated Jamaican community leaders and re-enlisted their support in lobbying influential persons in the United Kingdom, on behalf of Jamaica.

Jamaica is seeking a modification in the size of the price cuts and a longer period - 10 years - for implementation of the cuts, to allow sufficient time for the sugar industry to adjust.

He also said Jamaica and other ACP countries were dissatisfied with the way in which the planned accompanying measures to the sugar reforms had been presented.

"There is no justification as to why an elaborate compensation plan has been put in place for the partners (sugar producers) in Europe, but very little has been said about what is proposed for us," said Heaven.

"It has no indication as to funding and who is going to administer the programme. In the same way that the industry in Europe requires the information as to what is proposed, we do as well."

He reiterated that the ACP bloc was asking for no handouts, but was simply insisting on the adherence to the trade treaty it has with the EU.

Although sugar contributes just under two per cent of Jamaica's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), its impact is much more far-reaching.

More than 40,000 persons are directly employed to the sector, while the jobs of as many as 250,000 are indirectly impacted by sugar.

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO/GRENADA
Hurricane devastates T&T, Grenada

Source: THE JAMAICA GLEANER

published: Friday | July 15, 2005

Hurricane devastates T&T, Grenada
Lindsay Mackoon, Gleaner Writer

HURRICANE EMILY has already battered Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada, leaving a trail of disaster and destruction.

Two houses were destroyed and 30 lost their roofs in Tobago, officials said yesterday.

The storm dumped heavy showers in Trinidad, causing widespread flooding, and landslides that cut off villages in various parts of the island.

BIG BLOW TO AGRICULTURE

In Grenada, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell said yesterday that the hurricane dealt a big blow to agriculture.

He said, however, that there were no fatalities and that the extent of the damage was yet to be ascertained.

Dr. Mitchell appealed to Trinidad and Tobago for assistance.

Both airports in the twin-island republic - Piarco in Trinidad, and Crown Point in Tobago - were reopened yesterday morning after closing since Wednesday.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning said Trinidad and Tobago was again spared a major disaster.

He also promised assistance to Grenada and said soldiers from Trinidad would be sent to that island to help in rebuilding efforts.

Yesterday, north Venezuela, Aruba, Bonair, and Curaçao were bracing for 'Emily'.

CUBA
Tropical Storm Emily aims at areas lashed by Hurricane Dennis

Source: GRANMA INTERNATIONAL (Cuba)

Havana. July 12, 2005

Tropical Storm Emily aims at areas lashed by Hurricane Dennis

TROPICAL Storm Emily is advancing toward areas lashed by Hurricane Dennis, experts said today after studying projections for the fifth storm system of the season in the Atlantic, DPA reported from Miami.

It is believed that Emily will become this year’s second hurricane in the next 24-36 hours, when it nears eastern Puerto Rico. The hurricane season in the Atlantic begins on June 1 and ends November 30.

Emily is now about 1,360 kilometers east of the Lesser Antilles, and is moving 24 km per hour with sustained winds of 75 kph; if it continues its current trajectory, it will hit Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba and possibly the southeastern United States.

"There is an anti-hurricane front, and that is what will decide more exactly the route that the storm will follow, something that we should know by Wednesday or Thursday," stated meteorologist Eduardo Rodríguez.

Behind Emily, a tropical wave formed today facing Africa’s western shores, and meteorologists plan to monitor it.

NIGERIA
Lagos pousse dans l'anarchie<

Source: LA LIBERATION

lundi 18 juillet 2005 (Liberation - 06:00)

Lagos pousse dans l'anarchie

En quarante ans, la cité nigériane est passée de 1 à 16 millions d'âmes.
Par Virginie GOMEZ
Lagos envoyée spéciale

Le «go slow» (embouteillage, en pidgin) est la manifestation la plus impressionnante de la congestion de Lagos, à cheval entre terre et mer. Chaque matin, des centaines de milliers de minibus, de voitures et de moto-taxis empruntent les trois ponts qui relient le continent aux îles, où sont concentrées les entreprises. Le soir, le même flux repasse lentement l'entonnoir en sens inverse. En saison des pluies, les routes sont impraticables, et les épaves en panne au milieu des voies trop étroites provoquent des bouchons qui peuvent durer des journées entières.

Maladies. En quarante ans, la capitale économique du Nigeria est passée de 1 à 16 millions d'habitants. Le boom pétrolier des années 70 a accentué l'exode rural vers la cité, où l'argent coulait à flots. Dans un grand flou juridique, les quartiers populaires se sont amalgamés comme autant de villages, les infrastructures n'ont pas suivi. Le réseau d'eau courante fournit à peine un tiers des besoins, l'électricité est erratique, des milliers de tonnes d'ordures croupissent à ciel ouvert, les nappes phréatiques sont polluées...

«Le système routier est incontrôlable, ingérable et amène le chaos», souligne Samuel Oni, professeur de géographie à l'université de Lagos. Entourée et innervée de voies navigables quasi inutilisées, Lagos ne jure que par les routes. Aux véhicules de transport collectif s'ajoutent les camions de marchandises transitant vers le port et les milliers de citernes distribuant à domicile l'eau et le fuel, qui alimente les générateurs d'électricité.

Conséquence de la pollution, 16 % des décès d'enfants de moins de 5 ans sont dus aux maladies respiratoires, en augmentation constante. Le parc automobile pléthorique ne fait l'objet d'aucune régulation : des véhicules antédiluviens fonctionnant au diesel frelaté circulent sans contrôle.

Le gouvernement de Lagos a des projets ambitieux pour décongestionner : créer un métro aérien, bâtir un quatrième pont. Mais les analystes s'accordent à penser qu'une approche intégrée fait défaut. Il n'y a pas de plan global pour Lagos. L'architecte Ayo Onajide souligne la nécessité d'une politique d'envergure en matière de logements sociaux, alors que la majorité de la population vit dans une extrême pauvreté.

Réussite urbanistique, Abuja, la capitale politique créée en 1990, a échoué à désengorger Lagos. Les administrations et les ambassades y ont été délocalisées, mais l'activité industrielle reste concentrée au sud. Abuja a surtout permis à l'élite politique d'échapper à un lieu de plus en plus invivable. Les autorités pratiquent une politique du confinement pour empêcher la marée des pauvres de déferler sur la nouvelle ville. Loin des yeux, loin du portefeuille : alors que des milliards de dollars sont investis à Abuja, Lagos manque de fonds pour les pharaoniques projets qui lui sont nécessaires, et peine à élaborer une taxation efficace.

Lieu des possibles. Professeur à l'Institut d'analyses des politiques publiques de Lagos, Thompson Ayedole estime que «les gens vont continuer de venir à Lagos parce qu'ils pensent y trouver une chance d'améliorer leurs revenus. Il faut faciliter les procédures pour leur permettre de sortir de l'informel». Si décatie qu'elle soit, la capitale économique conserve son pouvoir d'attraction et reste un lieu de possibilités, au contraire des campagnes sous-développées, où l'investissement fait défaut. Complexe, le problème de Lagos dépasse largement ses frontières sans cesse repoussées, et les politiques efficaces se font attendre. A tel point que, pour certains observateurs, «le reste du monde sera devenu comme Lagos bien avant que Lagos ne devienne comme le reste du monde».

Congrès international de la population
Plus d'humains des villes que des champs<

Source: LA LIBERATION

lundi 18 juillet 2005 (Liberation - 06:00)

Lagos pousse dans l'anarchie

A Tours, un congrès fait le point sur les tendances démographiques mondiales.

Démographie, fécondité, urbanisation, famille... où vont le monde et ses 6,5 milliards d'humains ? La question est aussi vertigineuse que le programme du Congrès international de la population qui s'ouvre aujourd'hui à Tours (1) avec ses 750 interventions et des thèmes qui esquissent les contours du monde de demain. Car, dans le domaine des prédictions, les démographes affichent leur modestie : si, voilà cinquante ans, ils avaient bien prévu le nombre d'habitants pour 2005, ils annonçaient 15 milliards pour 2050, ce sera au plus 8 à 9 milliards. Autre surprise : plus de la moitié de l'humanité vit aujourd'hui dans un pays où la fécondité est devenue faible (en dessous de 2,1 enfants en moyenne par femme). Ce phénomène a touché les pays en développement beaucoup plus rapidement qu'on le pensait. Reste que les grandes questions dont on ignore les réponses ouvrent des perspectives effrayantes ou excitantes.

«Villes humaines». Dès aujourd'hui, on peut considérer que la moitié de la population du monde vit en ville (80,2 % en Amérique du Nord), et le phénomène ne va pas en rester là. L'homme est appelé à devenir une espèce urbaine. «L'urbanisation est un horizon inéluctable espéré par une grande partie de la population, note Catherine Rollet, présidente des comités d'organisation du congrès. Les paysans continuent à être attirés. Le défi est moins de vouloir les cantonner dans leurs campagnes (ce qui ne marche pas) que d'organiser des villes humaines.» L'exode rural peut se gérer ; la France l'a connu pendant un siècle et demi : en 1937, 48 % des Français étaient des ruraux, contre 24 % aujourd'hui. Dans les pays industrialisés, dont les trois quarts de la population vivent en ville, l'accroissement de l'urbanisation se tasse .

En revanche, le vieillissement de la population recouvre l'un des bouleversements majeurs du siècle. «Pour l'instant, les années gagnées sont des années en bonne santé, il n'y a pas de catastrophe dans l'explosion de la dépendance de personnes âgées», souligne Gilles Pison, directeur de recherches à l'Ined (Institut national d'études démographiques). Les scientifiques y voient un progrès formidable, d'abord dû à la baisse de la fécondité.

Supercentenaires. Au Japon, l'espérance de vie atteignait 76-78 ans dans les années 50. Aujourd'hui elle est de 85 ans pour les femmes, ce qui sera la moyenne pour les pays industrialisés en 2050. Quant à la longévité, on ignore quelle est la limite biologique de la vie humaine. Jeanne Calment restera-t-elle une exception ou le nombre de supercentenaires va-t-il exploser ? Il existe aujourd'hui des listes nominatives des personnes de plus de 110 ans, dont beaucoup sont japonaises. Les plus résistants atteignent ces grands âges et, passé un certain cap, la croissance de la mortalité se ralentit : qu'elles aient 110 ou 112 ans, la probabilité de mourir l'année suivante reste la même.

Ce vieillissement de population va également toucher les pays du Sud, où le phénomène va être beaucoup plus soudain que dans les pays du Nord. Et les inégalités sur la santé et la mortalité se creusent. «A chaque fois qu'un progrès sanitaire majeur est accompli, les pays pionniers en profitent et il faut des années avant que les autres pays rattrapent leur retard. Et quand ils y parviennent, les pionniers ont déjà bénéficié d'autres avancées, explique Jacques Vallin, directeur de recherches à l'Ined. En ce moment, nous sommes dans un paroxysme d'inégalité. Et le phénomène se produit également au sein d'un même pays, où l'écart se creuse entre les catégories sociales. On le voit bien dans la lutte contre les maladies cardio-vasculaires.»

Ainsi, en Afrique australe l'espérance de vie recule essentiellement à cause du sida. Des études montrent également que la mortalité infantile stagne en Afrique subsaharienne. Au Mozambique, l'espérance de vie la plus courte au monde n'atteint que 34 ans.

(1)XXVe Congrès international de la population, du 18 au 23 juillet 2005.

ACP-UE
Relations UE-ACP : la réforme du sucre désoriente les producteurs de l'Acp

Source: LE POTENTIEL (R.D. CONGO)

Publié sur le web le 15 Juillet 2005

Relations UE-ACP : la réforme du sucre désoriente les producteurs de l'Acp
Faustin Kuediasala
Kinshasa

Alors que l'Union européenne trouve dans sa proposition de réforme du sucre une occasion d'offrir de bonnes perspectives de croissance à ses producteurs, pour ceux des pays de l'Afrique, Caraïbes et Pacifiques (Acp), la démarche entamée par l'Ue - même si elle reste assortie d'un certain nombre de facilités à leur octroyer - ne serait pas source de croissance et de stabilité pour les exploitants du secteur. A cet effet, ils se rabattent sur l'accord commercial de Cotonou qui continue à les lier aux pays membres de l'Ue.

La Commission européenne a proposé récemment une réforme de grande envergure de l'organisation commune du marché du sucre. Les changements renforceront la compétitivité et l'orientation en fonction des impératifs du marché du secteur sucrier de l'Ue, lui garantiront un avenir durable à long terme et consolideront la position de l'Ue dans le cadre du cycle actuel de négociations sur le commerce mondial. Ils moderniseront également le régime actuel, qui est resté pratiquement inchangé depuis une quarantaine d'années. Le nouveau régime continuera d'offrir un accès préférentiel au marché du sucre européen pour les pays en développement à un prix avantageux très au-dessus du niveau du marché mondial.

Les pays d'Acp exportateurs traditionnels de sucre vers l'Ue, bénéficieront d'un programme d'aide adopté également aujourd'hui par la Commission. Les propositions de réforme de la Commission prévoient une réduction en deux temps de 39 % au total du prix du sucre blanc; l'indemnisation des agriculteurs à hauteur de 60 % de la baisse du prix par l'intermédiaire d'un paiement découplé subordonné au respect de normes de gestion environnementale et des terres intégré au paiement unique par exploitation; un régime volontaire de restructuration de quatre ans visant à inciter les producteurs les moins compétitifs à abandonner le secteur; et la suppression de l'intervention. Le plan d'aide Acp sera doté d'un budget de 40 millions - pour 2006 et ouvrira la voie à d'autres aides ultérieures.

La Commission espère un accord politique sur ces propositions lors du Conseil de l'agriculture en novembre. «Il n'y a pas d'autre solution qu'une réforme en profondeur», a déclaré Mariann Fischer Boel, commissaire européen en charge de l'Agriculture et du Développement rural. «La solution de facilité consisterait à se croiser les bras, ce qui entraînerait la lente et douloureuse agonie de la production sucrière européenne. Je suis convaincue que les producteurs de sucre de l'Ue peuvent être compétitifs à l'avenir mais seulement si nous agissons dès maintenant et avec détermination afin de les préparer aux défis qui les attendent. Nous offrons une perspective de planification stable à long terme s'appuyant sur un fonds de restructuration largement doté afin d'encourager les producteurs les moins compétitifs à abandonner le secteur et de faire face aux retombées sociales et environnementales du processus de restructuration. Par ailleurs, nous maintiendrons notre système de préférences en faveur de nos fournisseurs traditionnels des pays en développement. Notre marché du sucre continuera par conséquent à attirer un certain nombre d'entre eux».

LES FONDEMENTS DE LA REFORME

Pour sa part, Louis Michel, commissaire européen au Développement et à l'Aide humanitaire, a souligné : «Nous comprenons parfaitement que la réforme du sucre de l'Ue constitue un défi important pour nombre de nos partenaires Acp. Le régime d'aide proposé leur facilitera une transition en douceur dans le cadre d'une stratégie locale de développement durable». Après les réformes de la Politique agricole commune (Pac) de 2003 et de 2004, le temps est maintenant venu d'aligner le régime du sucre sur l'approche déjà adoptée dans d'autres secteurs. La réforme du sucre doit dûment prendre en compte les revenus des agriculteurs, les intérêts des consommateurs et la situation de l'industrie de transformation. Elle doit également stimuler la compétitivité du secteur communautaire du sucre, renforcer son orientation en fonction des impératifs du marché et contribuer à un équilibre durable du marché conformément aux engagements internationaux de l'Ue.

La Commission a analysé en détail le marché du sucre et consulté le plus vaste éventail possible de parties intéressées. Ses évaluations d'impact ont démontré sans ambiguïté que le maintien de la situation actuelle était inenvisageable. Sans réforme, il faudrait réduire considérablement les quotas de manière uniforme, mesure qui frapperait le plus durement les producteurs les plus compétitifs et entraînerait inéluctablement un scénario de déclin du secteur.

Il convient d'offrir aux producteurs européens des certitudes à long terme concernant les règles auxquelles ils doivent se conformer. C'est pourquoi la proposition de réforme fixe le cadre économique et juridique du secteur du sucre européen jusqu'en 2014/2015 sans prévoir de clause de révision. La Commission propose une diminution substantielle des prix en deux temps combinée à la mise en place d'un fonds de restructuration suffisament doté pour une période de quatre ans. L'objectif de ce fonds est triple: fournir des incitations afin d'encourager les producteurs les moins compétitifs à quitter le secteur; dégager des crédits permettant de faire face aux retombées sociales et environnementales de la fermeture des usines (financement de plans sociaux ou de programmes de redéploiement ainsi que de mesures de réhabilitation environnementale du site); et enfin financer dans les régions les plus affectées le développement de nouvelles activités dans un souci de cohérence avec les interventions des Fonds structurels et de développement rural de l'Ue.

Il convient également d'être attentif aux besoins des pays en développement d'Afrique, des Caraïbes et du Pacifique pour lesquels l'Europe constitue traditionnellement un marché de première importance. Après la réforme, l'Europe demeurera un marché attrayant pour un certain nombre des pays ayant un accès garanti au marché de l'Ue en vertu du protocole sur le sucre.

UN REGIME D'AIDE EN FAVEUR DES PAYS ACP

La Commission propose toutefois également un régime d'aide en faveur des pays d'Afrique, des Caraïbes et du Pacifique qui sont des exportateurs traditionnels de sucre à destination de l'Ue. Elle est bien consciente que la réforme constitue un défi majeur non seulement pour les producteurs de betterave et de sucre de l'Ue, mais également pour de nombreux fournisseurs des pays Acp. Afin de répondre à la diversité des situations dans les différents pays, le régime d'aide de la Commission propose un vaste éventail de mesures sociales, économiques et environnementales. En vertu du protocole sur le sucre, 18 pays Acp exportent du sucre vers l'Ue et peuvent par conséquent être affectés par les réductions de prix sur le marché communautaire. L'engagement de la Commission de les soutenir dans leur processus d'adaptation figurait dans sa communication de juillet 2004, et a été étendu à un «plan d'action» présenté en janvier pour servir de base au dialogue avec les pays Acp.

La Commission propose de commencer à appliquer le régime d'aide dès 2006, car des investissements précoces dans ces pays multiplieront les chances de réussite de leur adaptation. Étant donné que la complexité des processus de restructuration et de diversification exige un effort dans la durée, l'aide de 2006 devra être intégrée dans un régime de huit années. Un budget initial de 40 millions - a été prévu pour 2006. L'octroi d'une aide à plus long terme sera garanti pour la période 2007-2013. Compte tenu des différences qui existe entre les pays Acp, il est proposé une grande variété de types d'aide, qui devront être adaptés dans chaque pays aux besoins définis par les intéressés et intégrés dans une stratégie à long terme, globale et durable.

AFRICA
Mineral Experts Look to EU Market

Source: NEW ERA (Namibia)

Posted to the web July 13, 2005

Mineral Experts Look to EU Market
John Ekongo
Windhoek

SEVERAL mineral experts from the SADC and Caribbean states are meeting for three days in Windhoek to devise mechanisms on how best they can push their abundant mineral products into the highly lucrative European Union (EU) market.

The workshop is being conducted under the auspices of the Minerals Development Fund of Namibia (MDF) and the Centre for the Development of Enterprise (CDE). It intends among other things to explore new initiatives and ideas to facilitate access for minerals extracted in ACP or rather African, Caribbean and Pacific countries into EU markets.

According to Dr Elias Shanyengana, CDE consultant for the Southern African region and also the workshop co-ordinator, "particular emphasis will be placed on deliberation of market issues, constraints and opportunities for African minerals and mineral products."

This, according to him, will, "create an enabling environment for project promoters and consultants in the mining sectors to establish beneficial relations between the South-South and North-South relations."

Addressing the workshop, Deputy Minister of Mines and Energy, Henock ya Kasita, stressed, "This seminar on access of ACP minerals and mineral products to European markets is critical because it has immense potential to contribute to our ongoing efforts to enable socio-economic emancipation of our people and nations."

More so, minerals and other natural resources, he noted "are often the only source of capital that is directly available to most of our predominantly rural populations both in Namibia and SADC at large."

Hence, the deputy minister said, "the augmentation of this sector is therefore central to our efforts at eradicating poverty, ultimately unlocking the development potential of our people as well as the realisation of sustainable livelihoods in Namibia and other developing nations."

The CDE is an organisation that was set up under the Cottonou Agreement, to serve ACP countries in providing technical know-how, and to create an enabling investment environment in the development of mineral products into well-established markets for these countries, of which Namibia is a member.

MADAGASCAR
quatre chefs d'Etat attendus au sommet de la COI le 22 juillet

Source: LE MONDE

AFP 13.07.05 | 14h29

Madagascar: quatre chefs d'Etat attendus au sommet de la COI le 22 juillet

Quatre chefs d'Etat, dont le président français Jacques Chirac, et un chef de gouvernement doivent participer au troisième sommet de la Commission de l'Océan Indien (COI), qui s'ouvre le 22 juillet à Madagascar, a indiqué mercredi la COI à Antananarivo.

Outre un millier d'invités, le président malgache Marc Ravalomanana a convié les chefs d'Etat ou de gouvernement des cinq membres de la COI: M. Chirac pour La Réunion, le président de l'Union des Comores, Azali Assoumani, le président seychellois James Michel, et le nouveau Premier ministre mauricien, Navin Ramgoolam.

"Mais pour le moment, seules les Comores et les Seychelles nous ont fait parvenir les noms et les fonctions des membres de leurs délégations respectives", a précisé mercredi matin à l'AFP Mme Justin (ndlr: nom unique, comme en portent nombre de Malgaches), directrice de la coopération régionale au ministère malgache des Affaires étrangères.

La délégation française est attendue le 21 juillet à Mahajanga, la troisième ville de Madagascar, sur la côte nord-ouest, a-t-elle toutefois ajouté.

M. Chirac doit y poser la première pierre d'un marché local, dont les travaux sont financés par la France, a-t-on précisé mercredi matin à la présidence de la République malgache.

La cérémonie d'ouverture prévue au palais présidentiel d'Iavoloha dans la banlieue de la capitale, commencera par une allocution de la secrétaire générale de la Commission, Monique Andréas Esoavelomandroso, a précisé Mme Justin.

"Elle sera suivie par le président Jacques Chirac, président sortant de la COI, et enfin par le chef de l'Etat malgache, Marc Ravalomanana, qui ouvrira officiellement le sommet", a-t-elle ajouté.

Les séances de travail entre chefs d'Etat et de gouvernement se dérouleront à huis clos.

Le 23 juillet, une séance de travail est prévue à Antananarivo avec le commissaire européen chargé du Développement et de l'aide humanitaire, Louis Michel, a indiqué enfin Mme Justin. La COI, créée en 1984 aux Seychelles, regroupe cinq îles riveraines du sud-ouest de l'océan Indien.

En 21 ans d'existence, la COI n'a tenu que deux sommets à l'échelon des chefs d'Etat, le premier en 1991 à Madagascar et le deuxième en 1999 à La Réunion. Madagascar assure la présidence de la COI depuis avril 2005.

"Les enjeux de ce sommet sont de donner un souffle nouveau à cette organisation, et de refonder un pacte de solidarité sur des sujets aussi importants que la croissance démographique, les changements climatiques, l'intégration régionale ou encore la libre circulation des biens et des personnes", avait déclaré en avril Bernard Salva, le représentant de La Réunion.

Des mesures spéciales de sécurité seront prises dans les hôtels de la capitale malgache et à Iavoloha, selon l'organisation du sommet. "Cinq armes de poing, au maximum des 9 mm, seront autorisées pour chaque délégation", précise son site internet (www.coi-sommet2005.mg).

CUBA/ HAITI / JAMAIQUE
Le cyclone Dennis a tué plus de soixante personnes sur son passage

Source: LE MONDE

12.07.05 | 19h38 • Mis à jour le 12.07.05 | 19h38

Le cyclone Dennis a tué plus de soixante personnes sur son passage

Le cyclone Dennis a fait au moins 40 morts en Haïti, d'après un bilan encore provisoire établi mardi 12 juillet. Ce bilan est beaucoup plus élevé que dans les deux autres pays touchés par l'ouragan, Cuba et les Etats-Unis. Au total, Dennis a donc fait au moins 61 morts.

Premier cyclone de la saison 2005 dans l'Atlantique, il est passé jeudi sur le sud-ouest d'Haïti, avant de traverser Cuba et de frapper le sud des Etats-Unis le week-end dernier.

HAÏTI GRAVEMENT TOUCHÉ

Au moins 40 personnes ont été tuées dans des inondations provoquées par la pluie torrentielle et les vents ayant accompagné le cyclone, a indiqué le porte-parole de la protection civile haïtienne, Jeffe Delorges. Seize personnes sont portées disparues et 22 ont été blessées, a-t-il précisé.

En Haïti, pays le plus pauvre du continent américain, les communications routières et téléphoniques sont très mauvaises, expliquant la difficulté des autorités à établir rapidement un bilan définitif des victimes de Dennis. Jusqu'à présent, le nombre des victimes recensées était de 11 morts et 8 disparus. Vingt-trois corps ont été retrouvés dans la ville de Grand-Goâve (Sud-Ouest). La plupart des personnes ont été tuées lors de l'effondrement d'un pont, selon les autorités municipales citées par Jeffe Delorges. Dix personnes sont mortes dans la région de la Grande-Anse (Sud-Ouest), cinq dans le Sud-Est et deux dans la ville des Cayes (Sud). La protection civile a aussi recensé 15 000 personnes sinistrées, 609 maisons détruites et 1 032 endommagées.

Le passage de Dennis a également provoqué de nombreuses inondations destructrices pour les plantations, favorisées par l'intense déforestation. Depuis la fin de l'ère Aristide Haïti souffre toujours d'une violence endémique et peine à reprendre pied en dépit d'une aide internationale militaire, civile et financière depuis plus d'un an. Quelque 7 400 militaires et policiers de l'ONU sont déployés en Haïti et ont été mobilisés pour venir en aide aux victimes.

Haïti avait déjà été très éprouvé par le passage de la tempête Jeanne en septembre 2004, dont le bilan était de 1 870 morts et 850 disparus et qui avait fait d'énormes dégâts notamment dans la ville des Gonaïves (Nord-Ouest).

16 MORTS À CUBA ET CINQ AUX ÉTATS-UNIS

A Cuba, le cyclone Dennis a fait 16 morts et plus de 1,4 milliard de dollars de dégâts, a annoncé, lundi soir, le président Fidel Castro. Ce bilan reste provisoire, a-t-il précisé. Treize morts ont été enregistrés dans la province de Granma, deux à Santiago de Cuba (Est), et un dans la province centrale de Sancti Spiritus. Le président cubain a indiqué que plus de 120 000 habitations avaient été entièrement ou partiellement détruites.

Aux Etats-Unis, Dennis a fait cinq morts, trois en Floride et un en Georgie, et de gros dégâts dans le sud du pays, où il a provoqué inondations et tornades. Les dégâts sont estimés à entre un et cinq milliards de dollars de pertes assurées, selon le cabinet spécialisé Risk Management Solutions.

WTO / EU
Controversial EU sugar reforms face baptism of fire

Source: TODAY (Singapore)

Posted: 17-Jul-2005 16:08 hrs

Controversial EU sugar reforms face baptism of fire

Controversial European Commission plans to reform the sugar industry face a first major test on Monday, as EU farm ministers meet to debate them in Brussels with sugar growers protesting in the streets.

. The reforms became necessary after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) declared the EU policies, which date back to 1968, illegal based on a complaint from Australia, Brazil and Thailand.

. Under current rules, 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 Commission's plan is to cut the guaranteed price by 39 percent over two years from 2007 and offer a voluntary compensation scheme for producers forced out of business by the price cut.

. But the reform is 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 some 400 million euros (480 million dollars) a year if the measures are adopted.

. It is out of the question that the EU agriculture ministers, meeting in informal council on Monday, will give the green light to the reform plans.

. "There is a blocking minority of eight states," said an official close to the dossier. "But eight out of 25 is quite a good start for an ambitious programme."

. The commission says it is hoping to get the go ahead in November. . The eight -- Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Lithuania, Portugal and Spain -- fear that the reform will see their sugar beet farms disappear, giving the advantage to more competitive states like France and Germany.

. The commission is offering to compensate producers 60 percent of their losses incurred by the drop in the guaranteed price, but it does not hide that it is trying to get rid of the poorer performers.

. "We are well placed to help producers and farmers who would like to leave the sector in an orderly and socially acceptable manner," EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said last month.

. At an EU level, she has justified the plan by saying that the sugar sector needs to be brought into line with reforms made to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the bloc's costly farm subsidy system, in 2003 and 2004.

. "We need a reform which gives a better fit between the sugar sector and the rest of the CAP," she said.

. While the commission is offering 40 million euros to help ACP producers, the reform plans will mean far more in losses.

. Mauritian Foreign Minister Madan Dulloo, whose country is the ACP spokesman on the sugar dossier, said the states "depend heavily on their exports of sugar to the EU market to meet their food requirements."

. "Hence this predictable source of revenue, if it were to disappear, would have very serious implications for food security," he said, adding that the commission was preparing a "human tragedy".

. Non-governmental organisations such as Oxfam and APRODEV share that assessment and have denounced the "sweet gifts" being offered to producers, which will turn into a "bitter pill" for developing countries.

. In Brussels, some 5,000 producers are expected to demonstrate to call for guarantees for their future. They claim some 120,000 of the bloc's 320,000 growers will disappear in the next two to three years.

. In Germany on Friday, some 40,000 sugar beet farmers and sugar refinery employees demonstrated in 50 cities against the EU plans. — AFP

AFRICA
How to Eradicate Hunger in Africa – Obasanjo

Source: THIS DAY (Nigeria)

07.13.2005

How to Eradicate Hunger in Africa – Obasanjo
By Ndubuisi Ugah,
Lagos

President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the lasting solution to the threat of hunger and poverty in the world, involved a collaborative effort between developed and third world nations.

As a means of achieving this objective, Obasanjo said there was a need for the world to "address the food needs of the most vulnerable sector of the underclass hungry children", which he said "the World Food Programme has put a price on."

Obasanjo, who spoke when he visited the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) headquarters in Italy, said "$5 billion a year may seem like a sizeable sum, but if it is carefully targeted at improving health and nutrition for the neediest 100 million children, it could have a seismic impact that rolls back hunger and sets the world again on track towards reaching that elusive first Millennium Development Goal.

"The plan forsees a partnership between rich and poor nations. Increasing the food supply and simultaneously reducing hunger is a target across Africa, so developing nations would be encouraged to play their part, contributing food to the value of $2 billion to meet the needs of women and children especially through school feeding programmes. For its part, the developed world would be expected to provide the balance of $3 million".

He explained that the collaborative effort was "a small price to pay for reaching a goal that seeks to propel Africa and the rest of the world out of poverty using a commodity that is one of the fundamental building blocks of life". Continuing, President Obasanjo added that "when I think of Africa today, it reminds me of Charles Dickens' character, Oliver Twist. Africa is struggling to extract itself with dignity from poverty and neglect".According to him, "it is unacceptable that Africa may be forced once again to go to the top table at Gleneagles and say, 'please, sir, I want some more".

He noted that "in a country like Nigeria, carefully mapped out policies have promoted food production, strengthened the agriculture sector, increased food exports and income and created employment for hundreds of thousands of people", a development he pointed out "the experiences and challenges of Nigeria are being shared with other Africa states".

"The grim reality we face today is that while global poverty dropped by 20 per cent during the 1990s, the number of hungry people actually rose. In the second half of the decade, almost five million more people became hungry every year. Today, the total number around the world who know what it is like to go to bed hungry stands at a staggering 852 million.

"What this means is that while there is convincing evidence of slow but positive progress towards making poverty history, the underclass of hungry people is actually growing and the world is losing ground in its bid to halve the proportion of those who suffer from hunger by 2015", he said.

The President maintained that "as Chairman of NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development), I have called for deep cooperation and collaboration with WFP and its partner agencies to strengthen agriculture, research and to share best practices to increase output and drastically to reduce hunger. In addition, savings from debt and debt servicing can go into these sectors that directly and immediately benefit the people".

EUROPE / WTO
rade ministers to discuss a new global agreement on trade liberalisation.

Source: TRINIDAD & TOBAGO EXPRESS

July 14th, 2005

EUROPE - Trade ministers to discuss a new global agreement on trade liberalisation.
David Jessop

On July 27, trade ministers from around the world will meet at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) headquarters in Geneva. They will be considering whether it is possible to reach an understanding on the framework and timetable for a new global agreement on trade liberalisation.

At issue will be whether the political will exists to move forward a process that has come close to stalling in the last twelve months. Unusually, on July 7 the Director General of the WTO, Superchai Panitchpakdi, told ambassadors that unless there was an immediate increase in the velocity of the negotiations, the completion of a new round by the end of 2006 was unlikely. There is still a "slender chance" of averting a crisis, he said "but every hour must be made to count".

Originally, the present round was to have been completed by the end of 2005 but during 2004 it became apparent that this was impossible. A new deadline of the end of 2006 was set. In the earlier part of this year it was agreed that it would be necessary to achieve by the end of this month, the first approximations of an agreement if approval is to be achieved at the full WTO ministerial meeting to be held in Hong Kong in December.

In order to try to move the process forward a series of what are known as a mini-ministerial meeting have been taking place. These involve limited numbers of WTO members and aim to achieve an informal consensus before the issues are taken to the general membership meeting as the general council. It is a far from satisfactory mechanism established to overcome the difficulties of involving all 143 WTO members in the organisation’s consensus-based approach. It results in agreement on often highly complex issues being hammered out first between the most powerful, the ‘five interested parties’, the US, the EC, Brazil, India and Australia, before others there by invitation, are consulted.

The latest such mini ministerial meeting took place in the Chinese port of Dalian on July 12/13. At the meeting representatives of some thirty WTO members including the world’s leading economies plus Brazil, India and China and nations such as Jamaica and Barbados, participated.

Although some progress was made, most delegations left the meeting warning that there was now very little time to put life back into the WTO negotiations.

Despite this, one important initiative from emerging and developing nations for a market access formula for agricultural goods began to make headway. At the Dalian meeting, the G-20 obtained the agreement of all present to use as a basis for discussion a formula on linear tariff reductions.

This proposed that developed and developing countries' tariff lines would be divided into different sets of bands according to the level of duties currently levied, with each band subject to different percentage cuts. The G-20 document proposed for developed countries, five different bands, the first comprising tariffs of up to 20 percent rising to a fifth for all tariffs of over 80 percent.

Developing country tariffs, on the other hand, the G-20 proposed should fall into four different bands: those between zero and 30 percent; between 30 and 80 percent; between 80 and 130 percent; and those over 130 percent. The tariffs within each band, it was suggested, would be subject to cuts of progressively higher percentages for each band.

Key WTO members’ willingness to work from these formulas while leaving the actual percentages for further discussion suggests that the previous tariff reduction formulas preferred by the EU, US or others may be abandoned, thereby beginning to resolve one of the most hotly debated technical issues in the Doha round.

Other positive straws in the wind came earlier. At the end of the G8 summit in Edinburgh, Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair said that he hoped it might be possible by the time of the Hong Kong ministerial meeting to announce a date for the ending of agricultural subsidies while the US President George Bush declared the intention of his administration to work with the EU to remove agricultural subsidies by 2010.

Despite this, it seems unlikely that within the remaining thirteen or so negotiating weeks after the August break the vast range of unresolved WTO issues can be addressed. These range from the failure so far of the EU and US to agree how to trade off EU tariffs on agricultural produce with the subsidies that support US farmers, to continuing difficulties with tariff reductions for non-agricultural goods or the lack of movement on services.

Some senior WTO officials point out that unlike on previous occasions this crisis has come long enough before the ministerial meeting for the difficulties to be resolved. They suggest that the most important issue will not be trying to achieve agreement in Hong Kong on all issues but to be able to demonstrate that there is sufficient will to continue to move the liberalisation process forward. While they recognise that the self-imposed 2006 deadline will not be met, they feel that if enough progress can be demonstrated in December, the round will continue and eventually solutions will be found.

From a Caribbean perspective this delay may be good news. The region already has enough challenges as a result of the restructuring of the EU sugar regime, the single tariff to be introduced for bananas and challenges to preferential arrangements for rum and rice to say nothing of the completion of the single market and economy.

In all of this, the region’s quiet but steady progress towards achieving an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe is important. Only in this process is significant support likely to be provided to enable the Caribbean to overcome some of the difficulties that will arise as a result of multilateral trade liberalisation.

Helpfully the Caribbean EPA process is now so far advanced that legal texts have begun to be drafted. While line-by-line negotiations on tariff reduction schedules still have to take place, many general principles are in the process of being enshrined in a draft protocol.

It is hard to conclude that the WTO round is not in crisis. Already in some quarters in Geneva a debate has begun as to whether ther can be any political will in Washington and Europe to make necessary but politically difficult concessions until there is a new President in the White House.

EU
Manif des betteraviers à Bruxelles

Source: FRANCE 2

Publié le 18/07 à 12:17

Manif des betteraviers à Bruxelles

Les producteurs de betteraves ont manifesté lundi matin à Bruxelles contre le projet de réforme du sucre

Ils étaient plusieurs milliers venus de 21 pays à défiler, au moment où le Conseil des ministres européens de l'Agriculture examinaient le projet de la Commission européenne.

Le texte prévoit de durcir les baisses de prix, de réduire de 39% sur deux ans le prix garanti du sucre et de 42,6% celui de la betterave, de diminuer la production.

Les manifestants demandent au Conseil des ministres "de leur assurer un avenir durable", alors qu'il a prévu de compenser à hauteur de 60% les pertes de revenu des producteurs.

Au son des sifflets et des tambours, le cortège s'est ébranlé vers 10h30 du Jardin Botanique, en direction du quartier européen où il est arrivé vers 11h30.

Parmi les manifestants, dont certains déguisés en betteraves, figuraient de nombreuses nationalités, dont des Belges, des Français, des Italiens, des Allemands, des Britanniques, des Espagnols ou encore des Portugais.

La réforme européenne du régime sucrier intervient après la condamnation de l'UE à l'OMC, sur plainte de pays émergents, comme le Brésil et la Thaïlande, et de l'Australie.

Le prix garanti aux producteurs européens est actuellement trois fois plus élevé que le cours mondial.

La réforme touchera aussi les secteurs sucriers des pays ACP (Afrique, Caraïbes, Pacifique), qui bénéficient d'un accès privilégié à un marché européen fortement rémunérateur.

En 2008, en principe, le marché européen sera ouvert, tans tarifs ni quotas, au sucre des pays les plus pauvres.

Le projet de la Commission ne devrait pas passer immédiatement, huit pays s'y opposant. L'Espagne, l'Estonie, la Finlande, la Grèce, l'Italie, l'Irlande, la Lituanie et le Portugal craignent la disparition pure et simple de la production betteravière sur leur territoire, au profit de pays plus compétitifs comme la France et l'Allemagne.

Publié le 18/07 à 12:17

CARIBBEAN
Eastern Caribbean on storm alert

Source: BBC NEWS

Published: 2005/07/13 11:58:39 GMT

Eastern Caribbean on storm alert

Eastern Caribbean islands have been warned they could face a hurricane within 24 hours as Tropical Storm Emily approaches, gathering strength.

Barbados is the first island in the storm's path, but all of the Windward Islands have been put on alert.

At 0900 GMT Emily's centre was about 420km (260 miles) south-east of Barbados, US hurricane experts said.

One of the islands at threat is Grenada, which was laid waste by Hurricane Ivan last year.

Nearly 40 islanders were killed and 90% of the island's housing was damaged. Officials said it could take up to 10 years for Grenada to recover.

Some dwellings still have no roofs, and the government has opened 36 shelters in preparation for Emily's approach.

Stocking up

The tropical storm is moving westwards at about 32km/h (20mph), with sustained winds of 95km/h and higher gusts, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said.

It is expected to deepen, possibly reaching hurricane strength - with winds of 120km/h or higher - by the time it hits the Caribbean.

Emily follows closely behind Hurricane Dennis, which caused more than two dozen deaths as it rampaged over Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba and Florida.

Emily, the fifth tropical storm of the season, could dump up to 15cm (6 inches) of rain on the Windward Islands, the NHC said.

Hurricane warnings have been issued for Grenada, Tobago, St Lucia and St Vincent, while the Grenadines, Barbados, Trinidad and Martinique are on tropical storm watch.

In Barbados, islanders have stocked up on food, water and emergency supplies, leaving shop shelves empty. "We have to be prepared for the worst and anything that falls short of the worst will be a relief for us all," said Attorney General Mia Mottley.

G8 / AFRICA
G8 boost role of developing world

Source: BBC NEWS

Published: 2005/07/12 22:25:41 GMT

G8 boost role of developing world

Analysis
By Steve Schifferes
BBC News economics reporter

The G8 Gleneagles summit will be remembered for many things. Of course, there are the bomb attacks in London, which overshadowed coverage of the meeting.

But in its own terms, it may well be remembered as the most productive G8 summit in many years, with a deal to increase aid to Africa and some (slow) progress on the next round of climate change talks.

The G8 is increasingly acting like a shadow world government
Professor John Kirton, University of Toronto G8 Centre

It was also the first time that campaign groups and non-governmental organisations were so closely involved in the agenda of the meeting, and were allowed within the conference centre itself.

But perhaps most important from a long-term perspective was the fact that leaders from developing countries were invited to attend the summit and played an important role in key negotiations on aid and global warming.

Not only did the leaders of seven key African nations attend the summit on Friday to discuss development aid, debt and trade, but the leaders of the major "emerging market" developing countries - India, China, Brazil, South Africa, and Mexico - met the G8 leaders on Thursday to discuss climate change.

One of the key outcomes of the summit was to set up a G8-led "dialogue" with these countries on future plans to combat global warming, with the first meeting due to be held in November.

The idea was to end the deadlock between the US and developing countries.

The US says it will not sign up to Kyoto until countries like China and India agree to cut their emissions. In response, those countries say they need technical and financial assistance to deal with growing pollution.

Effect of 9/11

It was not the first time that a G8 summit had played host to a group of leaders from developing countries, but it was the largest-ever grouping - and for the first time the five emerging market countries issued their own communique.

OTHER COUNTRIES AT G8 SUMMITS

Okinawa 2000: Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria, Thailand
Genoa 2001: Algeria, Bangladesh, El Salvador, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa
Kananaskis 2002: Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa
Evian 2003: Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco, Sénégal, Mexico, Brazil, China, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, India
Sea Island 2004: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Yemen; Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda
Gleneagles 2005: Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa; Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania
In fact, the first "outreach" invitations were extended during the Okinawa, Japan summit in 2000, when four countries, three from Africa, attended.

But it was after 9/11 that such invitations multiplied.

As Tony Blair said at Gleneagles, the best way to fight terrorism is with hope - and giving hope to developing countries has increasingly become part of the G8 agenda.

It is likely that Russia, which is organising the G8 meeting in 2006, will invite even more developing countries to discuss energy policy.

Shadow government

According to Professor John Kirton of the University of Toronto, the G8 is increasingly emerging as a "shadow world government" and developing countries are keen to have a seat at the table.

And, given the economic and political weight of countries like China, India, and Brazil, it is impossible for G8 leaders who want to get things done to ignore them.

Both India and Brazil hope to get permanent UN Security Council seats when the UN reform plans are discussed in September.

And the group of leading developing nations is increasingly playing a key role in the world trade talks due to resume in Hong Kong in December.

Likewise, the larger developing countries, like China and India, whose fast-growing economies are likely to overtake many G8 countries in the next few decades, are seen as the key to the next round of climate change talks, due to begin in Montreal in November.

It can only be a matter of time before the leaders of those countries have an even bigger role in the world institutions that - fitfully - govern the planet.

CARIBBEAN
OECS now has Geneva presence

Source: CARIBBEAN NET NEWS

Friday, July 15, 2005

OECS now has Geneva presence

CASTRIES, St Lucia: Member Countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) now have a Mission in Geneva through which they can actively engage in negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The OECS Geneva Technical Mission was officially launched on Tuesday June 28 following addresses by OECS Director General Dr. Len Ishmael, OECS Ambassador to Brussels Mr. George Bullen, Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States Sir John Kaputin, and Head of the European Commission’s Project Management Unit to support ACP States on WTO issues Mr. Pierre Berthelot.

Dr. Ishmael, who cut the ribbon to officially launch the Mission, called for full recognition to be given to the reality that the countries of the world are at different levels of development; that the playing field is not level; that double standards exist with respect to the implementation of protocols guiding world trade; that special accommodation must be given to those countries which are the most weak and vulnerable if world trade is to deliver the benefits which it is touted to deliver, to all, and that trade as a tool of development be understood in that context.

Dr. Ishmael noted that in this context the OECS presence in Geneva is vital to the sub-region’s long term welfare.

She said the Geneva Office will permit the OECS to be more active participants in the DOHA negotiations which will shape the future in which we live and work, and provide for the functional articulation of these islands into the global economy.

EU - DEVELOPMENT
EU: 'Cut export subsidies'

Source: FINANCE24.com(South Africa)

Jul 06 2005 06:17:13:630PM

Strasbourg - British foreign secretary Jack Straw on Wednesday called for EU nations to cut export subsidies to farmers that undercut agricultural products from poor African nations.

Straw said: "We must ensure better access to developed markets for the world's poorest countries.

"The EU, US and other rich countries must honour their commitments to abolish export subsidies and do so to a clear and explicit timetable."

The 25-nation EU has proposed phasing out export subsidies as part of world trade negotiations provided that the United States and other countries show a similar commitment.

Straw called on the EU to be ready to suspend aid to African countries that stifle democracy and fail to crack down on corruption, and he urged the bloc to ensure its aid money is used to improve the standards of African governments.

He highlighted Zimbabwe and Sudan as examples of African states where poor governance was to blame for poverty.

Straw said although Africa today is poorer than it was 25 years ago, sustainable peace is taking root in countries such as Burundi and Sierra Leone, which suffered from devastating wars.

He also said there are more than 30 democratically elected governments on the continent, compared with just three in the 1970s.

Straw said the economic situation in some countries, such as Mozambique, which has recorded a 7% economic growth, is improving rapidly and called on the EU help improve governance in Africa to make this growth long-lasting.

In 2004, the EU's trade with the African, Caribbean and Pacific group countries totaled over $55bn, with the EU importing goods to the value of $28.4bn and exporting goods worth $26.5bn.

For most of the ACP - and for virtually all African ACP countries - the EU is the main trading partner.

Some deputies in the EU assembly doubted aid and debt relief to Africa can bring tangible benefits to its people unless also accompanied by measures such as scrapping the EU's agricultural subsidies.

"No one decided to keep Africa poor, but in practice Europe has contributed to African poverty because of the side-effects of focusing blindly on stabilising and supporting European agriculture, industry and fisheries," said British Liberal Democratic legislator Fionna Hall.

British Conservative deputy Nirj Deva, the rapporteur for the EU's 7 billion development aid fund, which is controlled by the European Parliament, said pouring money into Africa has done little good.

AFRICA
Africa Online invests millions in Internet expansion

Source: PANAPRESS

Nairobi - 13/07/2005

Africa Online invests millions in Internet expansion

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - A Pan-African Internet Service Provider (ISP), Africa Online, on Tuesday unveiled a US$2.5 million investment plan as part of its first phase of a new product development and customer service enhancement programme aimed at connecting more Africans to the Internet.

Launching its 10th anniversary celebrations in Nairobi, Africa Online Kenya Managing Director Frederick Murunga said the project was aimed at providing better Internet access for its customers and preparing the company for what he termed as the "hyper-competitive" sector.

The company, founded by Kenyan experts working at the World Bank offices in Washington D.C. 10 years ago, has managed to spread its operations to 15 African nations, with a strong-foothold in Ghana.

"This investment is coming at a time when the Internet in Kenya is ten years old," he said, adding that it is time Kenyans and Africa in general took stock of the state of the Internet, the most versatile information technology platform of the time.

The African Online executive regretted that while Africa has been making progress in adopting the Internet over the years, it still lagged behind the western countries yet the two worlds started embracing the technology at virtually the same time.

Currently, there are only 1.5% of the African population using the Internet, a stark contrast to the adoption rate in some of the developed countries that is as high as 80% of the population.

"The difference is that the developed countries went on to invest in infrastructure and encourage development of the nascent technology, while in Africa there has been under-investment in infrastructure, and state monopolies," he noted.

He pointed out stifling regulatory environment as some of the factors that have frustrated private investments in the provision of Internet services to the African population.

According to the company, Egypt and South Africa accounted for almost 50% of the Internet users on the continent as a result of creating a more Information Communication Technology (ICT)-friendly environment.

Nairobi - 13/07/2005

UE
Más de 3.500 remolacheros de toda Europa se manifestarán hoy en Bruselas contra la OCM del azúcar

Fuente: RADIO TV ANDALUCIA

18/07/05 Informativos CanalSur

Más de 3.500 remolacheros de toda Europa se manifestarán hoy en Bruselas contra la OCM del azúcar

Los trabajadores del sector remolachero de 21 países de la Unión Europea se manifestarán hoy en Bruselas (Bélgica) mostrando su disconformidad con el reforma de la OCM del azúcar por parte de la Unión, en la que se espera que participen unos 3.500 remolacheros de toda Europa, junto a representantes de los países del ACP (Africa, Caribe y Pacífico) y de los PMA (Países Menos Avanzados), "para demostrar que somos personas dispuestas a dejarnos la piel en esta lucha por defender un cultivo que es nuestra vida".

A la marcha, convocada por la Confederación Internacional de Remolacheros y que partirá a las 10.00 horas, tendrá lugar el mismo día en que se celebrará el consejo de ministros de Agricultura de la Unión Europea con un carácter "muy reivindicativo en contra de una reforma diabólica que sólo beneficia a las multinacionales y a los grandes especuladores", apuntó el presidente de la Confederación Nacional de Remolacheros Españoles, Eugenio Molina.

Los remolacheros, que mantuvieron reuniones esta semana con el presidente de la Junta, Manuel Chaves, y con el delegado del Gobierno en Andalucía, Juan José López Garzón, indicaron el pasado viernes que esperan contar con el "apoyo" del Gobierno en este tema, ya que no lo consideran una "modificación", sino la exclusión del sector en la agricultura comunitaria.

En este sentido, el presidente de Asaja-A y vicepresidente del Comité de las Organizaciones Profesionales Agrarias (COPA), Ricardo Serra, mostró la semana pasada su rechazo, en nombre de los agricultores europeos, especialmente los andaluces, a la propuesta, que definió como "la mayor demostración de insolidaridad y discriminación en la historia de la UE".

Según los remolacheros, la propuesta de reforma afecta a más de 7.000 agricultores andaluces, a 700.000 jornales en el campo, y a 2.300 empleos directos en las industrias y 4.000 indirectos, ya que Andalucía produce un 33 por ciento del total nacional, con una superficie de 43.400 hectáreas, el 90 por ciento en Cádiz y Sevilla, con un volumen económico de 320 millones de euros en Andalucía.

Asunto de estado

Una de las reivindicaciones de los trabajadores del sector es que las protestas sobre la reforma de la OCM del azúcar sean tratadas en España como asunto de Estado. En este sentido, en declaraciones a los periodistas, Vázquez Gavira afirmó que en el encuentro con el delegado del Gobierno en Andalucía, le pidieron al Gobierno "el compromiso para que sea un asunto de estado", ya que es una "agresión a productores y trabajadores del sector remolachero".

Por su parte, el representante de la Federación Agroalimentaria de Comisiones Obreras, Antonio Perianes, indicó que el sector, si el Gobierno no está de su lado, "protestará y seremos muy críticos", ya que, según él, "debe situarnos" en Europa y "defender al sector" en esta situación "tan grave" y abogó por la unión del sector.

En este sentido, el delegado del Gobierno en Andalucía dijo que el Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación está haciendo "lo máximo" y que la ministra del ramo, Elena Espinosa, lo consideró "asunto de estado cuando estuvo en el Senado".

Además, la secretaria general de Agricultura y Ganadería de la Junta de Andalucía, Teresa Sáez, expresó hace días la "firme oposición" de la Junta a la reforma de la OCM del azúcar y mostró la intención del Gobierno andaluz de retrasar su aplicación, tras el encuentro mantenido por Manuel Chaves con los miembros de la Mesa del Azúcar.

La secretaria general expuso que hay motivos "generales" para oponerse a la reforma, "pues por primera vez se sienta un precedente único en la Política Agraria Común, vulnerando el principio de solidaridad para con el trabajador y el de apoyar las zonas desfavorecidas", siendo únicamente beneficiados "los países excedentarios como Francia y Alemania", según explicó.

Último Boletín emitido en Radio Andalucía Información

AFRICA / UN
Nigeria signals compromise on UN Council reform

Source: REUTERS

Fri Jul 15, 2005 8:23 AM GMT

Nigeria signals compromise on UN Council reform

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Nigeria said on Thursday the African Union was willing to negotiate over disagreements with Germany, Japan, Brazil and India in its quest to enlarge the 15-member U.N. Security Council.

Nigeria's foreign minister, Oluyemi Adeniji, whose country is president of the African Union, spoke a day after it appeared the AU position would be a major obstacle to a resolution put forth by Germany, Japan, Brazil and India, aspirants for permanent Security Council seats.

The United States, which on Tuesday urged nations to vote against all proposals, and China are lobbying strongly against the four contenders as well as the African Union plan.

Adeniji is in New York, along with other African foreign ministers, for make-or-break decisions on expanding the Security Council, which still reflects the balance of power in 1945. Most diplomats believe that if there is no change this summer, the issue will be dead for years.

"The African group has to listen to others once it has presented the draft resolution, which is why negotiations are taken with other groups," Adeniji said. "I don't think we can take any a priori position."

The African leaders on Sunday intend to meet foreign ministers from Germany, Brazil, Japan and India, known as the G-4, to see if a compromise can be reached, said Japan's U.N. ambassador, Kenzo Oshima. Without the 53 votes from the African Union, the G-4 plan is doomed.

The G-4 have called on the U.N. General Assembly to enlarge the Security Council from 15 to 25, including six new permanent seats, two for Africa, without vetoes. But the African Union has called for the council to be enlarged to 26 seats and is demanding six new permanent seats with veto privileges.

Adeniji said some "core elements" such as two permanent seats for Africa were not negotiable, indicating other elements could be changed.

But despite a unified position in the AU at a summit in Sirte, Libya, earlier this month, a split seemed to be emerging between North Africa and the rest of the continent.

Asked about Algeria's stated refusal to compromise, Adeniji said, "I do not believe the Algerian representative had spoken on behalf of Africa.

Algeria's U.N. ambassador, Abdallah Baali, told the General Assembly earlier this week, "Africa cannot support any draft other than this draft and only this draft."

Adeniji said a group of AU nations had been authorized to negotiate but would poll African leaders again if any changes were "sufficiently weighty."

Any expansion of the council needs two-thirds approval from the 191-member General Assembly. But eventually, there would need to be a U.N. Charter change and here the current five permanent members -- the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France -- can use their veto power.

In preparation for a vote, the General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution restoring voting privileges to nine countries, many of them African states, despite their lagging far behind in their U.N. dues payments.

They were the Central African Republic, Comoros, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Niger and Sao Tome and Principe.

A third proposal, circulated but not introduced by a group called "Uniting for Consensus" calls for 10 new members, all of them nonpermanent, with seats for varying terms. Italy, a leader of this group, is sending a deputy foreign minister to New York to lobby envoys.

DEVELOPMENT
FINANCE : 'MORE WORLD BANK LOANS DON'T EQUAL LESS POVERTY

Source: TERRAVIVA-EUROPE

Friday, 15 July 2005

FINANCE : 'MORE WORLD BANK LOANS DON'T EQUAL LESS POVERTY'
by Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON (IPS) - World Bank lending to developing countries rose last year by 2.2 billion dollars to 22.3 billion dollars on the back of renewed borrowing from middle-income countries, the Bank said Thursday.

Most of the money that the Washington-based institution lent came from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which raises its funds through the international capital markets. IBRD lent 13.6 billion dollars for 118 projects out of a total of 279 projects that the Bank funded last year.

The soft loan arm of the Bank, the International Development Association (IDA), which is funded by direct contributions from wealthy nations in the Group of Seven (G7), delivered 8.7 billion dollars as no-interest loans or grants to the world's poorest countries. This covered 161 projects.

Despite the large figures, anti-poverty activists -- long critical of the Bank's operations in developing nations -- charge that more money does not mean better results, especially when the Bank continues to attach counter-productive conditions to its loans.

But the Bank said in its statement that this year, ”overall lending quality also rose”, and attributed it to better preparation, greater selectivity and more effective supervision.

This has been a long-time demand from the United States, the largest shareholder in the Bank, and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund. The George W. Bush administration has requested that loans be tied to results on the ground and better oversight of how the money is used in developing nations.

Of total loans, grants, and guarantees, 15.7 billion dollars went for investment operations, which finance specific projects, such as building roads, oil pipelines or other infrastructure. Investment lending is now more than 50 percent higher than it was in 2000.

The remaining 6.6 billion dollars were for policy-based and development policy lending operations, which aim to influence governments' economic measures, like privatisation and trade liberalisation.

”We are particularly encouraged by the turnaround of two declining trends: the Bank's financial assistance to middle-income countries, and the volume of investment lending,” said James Adams, a vice president of the Bank.

The Bank gave its lending good marks on success in achieving development goals. It said that loans at risk of not achieving their development objectives declined to 13.5 percent at the end of fiscal year 2005, from 15.9 percent in fiscal 2004.

The Bank now says that ”human development” projects -- in education, health and other social sectors -- received a high share of the total, with loans going to national programmes most relevant to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which seek to half global poverty by 2015 among other aims. Several groups and critics of the Bank reacted by saying that the Bank's lending was still not helping improve the quality of life for millions of poor people around the world, and expect failure in achieving the MDGs.

”This is absolutely not to be trusted because the Bank has a self interest in showing programme effectiveness and it's a controversial question right now,” said Doug Hellinger of the Washington-based advocacy group Development GAP.

”Effectiveness is one the buzzwords. So they make the figures come out the way they want it to. We know poverty has increased or stayed stable in most of the countries in which the Bank has operated except places like China and India,” he said.

Several experts have also called for independent monitoring and auditing of these loans.

”It is now widely recognised that overall World Bank lending volumes and contributions to reducing poverty are often not correlated,” said Manish Bapna, executive director of the Bank Information Centre (BIC), a clearing house of information on the Bank in Washington.

”Independent, third-party monitoring of development effectiveness would help assess what real contributions World Bank financing has made to reducing poverty,” Bapna said.

India topped the list of borrowing countries at 2.89 billion dollars, with Turkey coming second at 1.8 billion dollars, followed by Brazil at 1.77 billion, China at 1 billion and Indonesia at 917 million dollars.

India was also the largest recipient of IDA assistance, with 1.1 billion dollars, followed by Vietnam at 700 million dollars and Bangladesh at 600 million.

Turkey was the largest recipient of IBRD lending at 1.8 billion dollars, followed by Brazil at 1.77 billion dollar and India at 1.75 billion dollars.

”These numbers and even the spin given to these numbers indicate that the Bank is slowly giving up on reducing poverty, preferring instead to focus on lending for infrastructure projects in (comparatively) richer countries,” said Sameer Dossani, director of the 50 Years Is Enough Network, a watchdog group .

”All of the Bank's large borrowers, India, Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, Argentina, etc. can and do raise money from private capital markets for their own initiatives, be they poverty reduction or otherwise,” he said.

By region, most of the Bank's loans went to Latin American countries, at 5.2 billion dollars, followed closely by South Asia at five billion dollars.

Europe and Central Asia received 4.1 billion dollars; Africa 3.9 billion dollars; East Asia and the Pacific 2.9 billion dollars; and Middle East and North Africa 1.3 billion dollars.

Dossani said what these figures show is that the Bank is more effective in moving money out the door, but that it may be offering cheap loans to countries that should not be eligible for them in the first place. He said the Bank is relaxing implementation of it own safeguard policies in order to be more attractive to those countries.

”Excessive focus on lending volumes reinforces the view that World Bank staff continue to face pressure to lend and operate in a culture of approvals,” Bapna said. ”If this is the case, it is quite problematic.” (END)

GUINEE BISSAU
Tentative de putsch ou «incident isolé» ?

Source: RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONALE

Dernière mise à jour le 17/07/2005 à 14:24 (heure de Paris)

Samedi à l’aube, cinq attaques ont visé simultanément des cibles stratégiques: le palais présidentiel et le ministère de l'Administration interne (Intérieur), distants de moins d’une centaine de mètres, mais aussi le bâtiment de la Marine nationale à Pindjiguity, au centre-ville, le siège de la Brigade motorisée de Bra, au nord de la capitale et les bureaux de l'Etat-major de Santa Luzia, au Sud. Armés de kalachnikov, la plupart des assaillants appartiendraient à un régiment de commandos parachutistes. Ils n’ont pas réussis à pénétrer dans les édifices visés. Mais ils ont fait deux morts et dix blessés graves parmi les policiers. Dix membres de ces commandos (aux effectifs indéterminés) auraient été tués et une vingtaine de suspects arrêtés. A huit jours du deuxième tour de la présidentielle, les autorités militaires minimisent l’opération.

«Nous ignorons le mobile de l'attaque et ceux qui en sont les instigateurs, mais la situation est maîtrisée», affirmait samedi soir Al Adji Mumini Embalo, le ministre de l'Intérieur de la transition. Celle-ci doit s’achever le 24 juillet prochain, avec le deuxième tour de la présidentielle où restent en lice l’ancien président déchu, «Nino» Vieira et l’ancien président intérimaire de la junte qui avait déposé Vieira en 1998, Malam Bacai Sanha. Ce dernier est aujourd’hui le candidat de l’ancien parti unique, le Parti africain pour l’indépendance de la Guinée-Bissau et du Cap-vert (PAIGC). Eliminé au premier tour, l’autre président déchu, Kumba Yala, sera en quelque sorte l’arbitre de ce duel censé marquer le retrait de la junte militaire qui l’a renversé en 2003 et le retour de Bissau à un jeu plus civil, après une succession de turbulences militaires.

Pour tenter de satisfaire leurs appétits de pouvoir, les différents chefs de file politiques de Bissau disposent de l’appui de fidèles au sein de l’armée. Travaillée par des factions politico-communautaires, celle-ci est aussi en proie à des soucis beaucoup plus alimentaires. Après avoir régulièrement juré de sa neutralité dans le processus de «normalisation» en cours, elle se défend aujourd’hui de toute responsabilité dans les attaques de samedi. Pour le moins, elle ne les a pas vues venir.

Les spéculations vont bon train

Ces nouveaux bruits de kalachnikov n’ont pas manqué de jeter une ombre inquiétante sur le scrutin de dimanche prochain. Il n’est pas sûr que les électeurs soient totalement rassurés par le communiqué très rapidement publié par l’état-major qui appelle au calme, se déclarant en état d’alerte maximum et surtout, affirmant qu’il s’agit d’un «incident isolé, sans lien avec les structure de l’armée». Pourtant, l’Agence France Presse cite «deux officiers des renseignements généraux chargés de l'enquête» qui identifient les assaillants comme des para-commandos, assurant même que certains d’entre eux portaient des tee-shirts à l’effigie de «Nino» Vieira. Les observateurs établissent en outre un lien entre les événements de samedi et la brève interpellation, la veille au soir, d’un proche de l’ancien président, Manuel Dos Santos. En provenance de Lisbonne, il avait tenté de franchir la douane sans déclarer les quelque 40 000 euros qu’il transportait.

En fin de week-end, tandis que les Bissau-Guinéens vaquaient à leurs occupations dominicales habituelles, la Division des investigations criminelles (DIC), poursuivaient les interrogatoires des prisonniers. A défaut de les identifier avec précision, l’armée voit dans ces attaques inopinées la main de «gens qui veulent perturber le processus de normalisation institutionnelle en cours», des mauvais perdants par exemple, au premier tour ou par anticipation. Des accrochages entre partisans de Vieira et de Sanha ont en tout cas émaillé la campagne électorale. Après une démonstration de force contre les résultats du premier tour, le candidat malheureux, Kumba Yala, avait finalement admis les résultats. Dans la perspective du second tour, les gesticulations de Vieira ont semé le doute quant à sa capacité à accepter une défaite. L’ancien président dénie, bien sûr, toute velléité de putsch et refuse de commenter les attaques de samedi. Alors, en attendant le verdict des urnes, les spéculations filent leur train ordinaire à Bissau.

Monique Mas
Article publié le 17/07/2005
Dernière mise à jour le 17/07/2005 à 14:24 (heure de Paris)

ACP / UE
Mobilisation contre la réforme du marché européen du sucre

Source: RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONALE

Chronique ACP (Afrique, Caraïbe, Pacifique) du 16/07/2005

Mobilisation contre la réforme du marché européen du sucre
Anne-Marie Mouradian

L’ambiance sera chaude lundi dans les rues de Bruxelles. Tandis que les ministres européens de l’Agriculture débattront pour la première fois de la proposition de réforme du marché du sucre, 5 000 betteraviers, venus des 21 Etats membres producteurs, manifesteront contre la proposition de la commission de Bruxelles. Une proposition qui, selon eux, fera disparaître 120 000 planteurs de betteraves sur les 320 000 que comptent l’Union. A leurs côtés, une délégation d’agriculteurs de l’Ile Maurice manifestera au nom des producteurs de sucre de canne d’Afrique, des Caraïbes et du Pacifique.

Les opposants jugent tous beaucoup trop brutale la réduction proposée par Bruxelles de 39% des prix garantis payés aux planteurs de l’Union européenne et de 18 pays ACP bénéficiaires du Protocole sucre. Derrière l’unité de façade, les intérêts divergent. La logique de la Commission est claire: favoriser la compétitivité en Europe mais aussi dans les pays ACP. Les plus faibles seront condamnés à disparaître ou à se reconvertir. Mais alors que Bruxelles veut compenser à hauteur de 60% les pertes de revenus des producteurs communautaires, elle ne prévoit à ce jour qu’une enveloppe de 40 millions d’euros pour les ACP.

Les betteraviers européens accusent aussi Bruxelles d’avoir abandonné toute ambition exportatrice pour l’Europe. Ils dénoncent la contradiction consistant selon eux à réduire la production en Europe et à augmenter, à travers le nouveau système de préférences généralisées (SPG) et l’initiative «Tout sauf les armes», les importations de sucre en provenance des pays en développement les moins avancés (PMA).

Moins que la production propre de ces pays, c’est le commerce triangulaire qui les inquiète. Cette pratique, organisée par les grandes sociétés de négoce, notamment brésiliennes, consiste à acheter du sucre sur le marché mondial, à le transporter vers un pays pauvre, à l’échanger contre du sucre de ce pays destiné à la consommation locale pour le réexporter vers l’UE en profitant du libre accès des PMA sur le marché européen et des tarifs européens qui restent plus rémunérateurs.

L’an dernier, l’Europe aurait ainsi vu débarquer quantité de sucre du Bengladesh, pays pourtant déficitaire en sucre. Selon Hubert Chavannes, secrétaire général de la Confédération Internationale des betteraviers européens, (CIBE), le même phénomène devrait se reproduire cette année avec du sucre de Madagascar.

Anne-Marie Mouradian
Article publié le 16/07/2005
Dernière mise à jour le 16/07/2005 à 12:26 (heure de Paris)

AFRIQUE
Les greniers sud-africains débordent alors que les voisins crient famine

Source: RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONALE

Chronique des matières premières du 15/07/2005

Les greniers sud-africains débordent alors que les voisins crient famine
Dominique Baillard

Cette année l’Afrique du Sud croule sous une moisson record, pour le maïs la production atteint les 12 millions de tonnes, soit 25% de plus que la campagne précédente. Une pléthore qui ne réjouit pas vraiment les agriculteurs. Les prix ont diminué de moitié entre le mois de novembre et la fin du mois de juin. Vu le niveau actuel des cours, les céréales ne fournissent plus un revenu suffisant aux fermiers. A tel point qu’ils préfèrent réduire les surfaces plantées. La décision est déjà prise pour le blé, et en discussion pour le maïs. Pour cette graine le gouvernement envisage aussi de favoriser la production d’éthanol, cela permettrait de vider les silos encombrés par une succession de campagnes prolifiques, au printemps 2006 le surplus dépassera les 4 millions de tonnes. Car ce ne sont pas les exportations de 40 000 tonnes par semaine vers les voisins affamés qui vont désengorger le marché. Le Malawi qui a vu sa récolte de maïs amputée d’un quart par la sécheresse a besoin de plus de 200 000 tonnes de céréales pour tenir jusqu’à la prochaine campagne. Pour le Zimbabwe la demande est encore plus forte, le pays doit importer plus d’un million de tonnes de céréales. L’ancien grenier de l’Afrique est aujourd’hui exsangue, la réforme agraire de 2000 visant à redistribuer les terres des fermiers blancs aux sans terres noirs ayant totalement détruit le système de production.

Les excédents sud-africains et la chute des prix qu’elle a entraîné a au moins le mérite d’alléger l’addition pour ces pays où la famine menace des millions de gens. Seulement voilà, si les cours des denrées sud africaines sont bas, si la faiblesse du Rand soulage d’autant plus la facture, le coût du transport pénalise durement les importateurs. Le transport par la route est le plus rapide et donc le plus apprécié en situation d’urgence mais c’est aussi le plus cher, il double presque le prix de la tonne de maïs par exemple. A cela il faut ajouter pour le Zimbabwe un sévère manque de devises pour assumer la charge. Dans ces conditions c’est le programme alimentaire mondial qui est devenu le meilleur client des céréales sud africaines, encore faut-il que les pays donateurs mettent la main au porte feuille.

En bref : Le bureau vietnamien du café revoit à la hausse la production de robusta. Finalement la récolte atteindrait les 600 000 tonnes au lieu des 500 000 tonnes initialement prévues. Des pluies tardives auraient limité l’impact de la sécheresse et surtout la hausse des cours a encouragé les paysans à prendre soin de leur plantation. Quoiqu’il en soit le premier producteur mondial de robusta fournira 150 000 tonnes de moins que l’année dernière, un déficit qui continue à peser sur le marché.

Sur le marché des métaux à Londres, le cours de l’aluminium s’est encore bonifié hier. la tonne livrable dans trois mois cotait hier 1830 dollars la tonne. L’augmentation du prix de l’électricité en Europe ainsi que la fermeture d’un certain nombre de site de production tirent la hausse déjà observée le jour précédent.

Dominique Baillard
Article publié le 15/07/2005
Dernière mise à jour le 15/07/2005 à 08:14 (heure de Paris)

TRADE
KAMAL NATH ATTENDS G-33 MEET ON SPECIAL PRODUCTS, SPECIAL SAFEGUARD MECHANISM IN DALIAN

Source: PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU (India)

Press Release - Wednesday, July 13, 2005

KAMAL NATH ATTENDS G-33 MEET ON SPECIAL PRODUCTS, SPECIAL SAFEGUARD MECHANISM IN DALIAN

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

13:25 IST

Mr. Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry, participated in a meeting of G-33, an alliance of developing countries on Special Products (SP) and Special

Press review - 730- Revue de presse :18/07/2005

SOLOMON ISLANDSSolomons urges EU to write off debts

ACP/EUJEU sugar reforms face baptism of fire

AFRICA / MAURITIUSMauritius to lobby hard for Agoa pact extension

AFRICASingle currency should follow SA, Botswana lead - Mboweni

BARBADOSRegion needs to keep abreast of trade challenges

UN / AFRICAMinisters at odds over UN bids

UN / AFRICAUzbekistan spared as EU ministers pile diplomatic pressure on Syria, Zimbabwe

JAMAICAOn with a real discourse on sugar

JAMAICASugar lobby continues Heaven to take case to EU parliament today

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO/GRENADAHurricane devastates T&T, Grenada

CUBATropical Storm Emily aims at areas lashed by Hurricane Dennis

NIGERIALagos pousse dans l'anarchie<

Congrès international de la populationPlus d'humains des villes que des champs<

ACP-UE Relations UE-ACP : la réforme du sucre désoriente les producteurs de l'Acp

AFRICAMineral Experts Look to EU Market

MADAGASCARquatre chefs d'Etat attendus au sommet de la COI le 22 juillet

CUBA/ HAITI / JAMAIQUELe cyclone Dennis a tué plus de soixante personnes sur son passage

WTO / EU Controversial EU sugar reforms face baptism of fire

AFRICAHow to Eradicate Hunger in Africa – Obasanjo

EUROPE / WTOrade ministers to discuss a new global agreement on trade liberalisation.

EUManif des betteraviers à Bruxelles

CARIBBEANEastern Caribbean on storm alert

G8 / AFRICAG8 boost role of developing world

CARIBBEANOECS now has Geneva presence

EU - DEVELOPMENTEU: 'Cut export subsidies'

AFRICAAfrica Online invests millions in Internet expansion

UEMás de 3.500 remolacheros de toda Europa se manifestarán hoy en Bruselas contra la OCM del azúcar

AFRICA / UNNigeria signals compromise on UN Council reform

DEVELOPMENT FINANCE : 'MORE WORLD BANK LOANS DON'T EQUAL LESS POVERTY

GUINEE BISSAUTentative de putsch ou «incident isolé» ?

ACP / UEMobilisation contre la réforme du marché européen du sucre

AFRIQUELes greniers sud-africains débordent alors que les voisins crient famine

TRADEKAMAL NATH ATTENDS G-33 MEET ON SPECIAL PRODUCTS, SPECIAL SAFEGUARD MECHANISM IN DALIAN

SOLOMON ISLANDS
Solomons urges EU to write off debts

ACP/EU
JEU sugar reforms face baptism of fire

AFRICA / MAURITIUS
Mauritius to lobby hard for Agoa pact extension

AFRICA
Single currency should follow SA, Botswana lead - Mboweni

BARBADOS
Region needs to keep abreast of trade challenges

UN / AFRICA
Ministers at odds over UN bids

UN / AFRICA
Uzbekistan spared as EU ministers pile diplomatic pressure on Syria, Zimbabwe

JAMAICA
On with a real discourse on sugar

JAMAICA
Sugar lobby continues Heaven to take case to EU parliament today

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO/GRENADA
Hurricane devastates T&T, Grenada

CUBA
Tropical Storm Emily aims at areas lashed by Hurricane Dennis

NIGERIA
Lagos pousse dans l'anarchie<

Congrès international de la population
Plus d'humains des villes que des champs<

ACP-UE
Relations UE-ACP : la réforme du sucre désoriente les producteurs de l'Acp

AFRICA
Mineral Experts Look to EU Market

MADAGASCAR
quatre chefs d'Etat attendus au sommet de la COI le 22 juillet

CUBA/ HAITI / JAMAIQUE
Le cyclone Dennis a tué plus de soixante personnes sur son passage

WTO / EU
Controversial EU sugar reforms face baptism of fire

AFRICA
How to Eradicate Hunger in Africa – Obasanjo

EUROPE / WTO
rade ministers to discuss a new global agreement on trade liberalisation.

EU
Manif des betteraviers à Bruxelles

CARIBBEAN
Eastern Caribbean on storm alert

G8 / AFRICA
G8 boost role of developing world

CARIBBEAN
OECS now has Geneva presence

EU - DEVELOPMENT
EU: 'Cut export subsidies'

AFRICA
Africa Online invests millions in Internet expansion

UE
Más de 3.500 remolacheros de toda Europa se manifestarán hoy en Bruselas contra la OCM del azúcar

AFRICA / UN
Nigeria signals compromise on UN Council reform

DEVELOPMENT
FINANCE : 'MORE WORLD BANK LOANS DON'T EQUAL LESS POVERTY

GUINEE BISSAU
Tentative de putsch ou «incident isolé» ?

ACP / UE
Mobilisation contre la réforme du marché européen du sucre

AFRIQUE
Les greniers sud-africains débordent alors que les voisins crient famine

TRADE
KAMAL NATH ATTENDS G-33 MEET ON SPECIAL PRODUCTS, SPECIAL SAFEGUARD MECHANISM IN DALIAN