ACP PRESS STATEMENT (November 15, 2008)

http://www.acp.int/en/coa/bananaconcern.suriname08.html


The banana companies in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States maybe forced out of business following the European Union’s decision to negotiate a Free Trade agreement (FTA) with Central American countries in what the ACP Group describes as on “too generous” terms.
The ACP Group expressed shock that only a week after the EU signed the first Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with an ACP region (CARIFORUM), which supposes to secure, and expand preferential access for ACP bananas into the EU market, the EU has gone ahead to negotiate an FTA with the Central Americans in terms which pose serious threat to ACP preferences.


The EU’s market access offer for bananas in the Framework of the FTA under negotiation might include an initial reference import tariff for bananas, which will be lower than the current applied tariff. Also, there will be a rapid decrease over a relatively short period to a final import tariff landing zone, which is lower than the figure that was indicated by ACP countries as the minimum tariff for the necessary preference that would enable them to continue their export of bananas to the EU.


The ACP understands that the EU plans to lower the current levy on competing bananas from certain Central America States of 176 euros per tonne to 95 euros over ten years.


The Chairman of the ACP Banana Working Group, Ambassador Gerhard Hiwat of Suriname, said that the new offer to Central America would mean the end of the banana industry in all the banana producing countries of the ACP Group.


The chairman believes that EU’s action also contradicts the objectives of the EPAs it signed with the Caribbean and interim agreement initialed with some African Banana exporting countries, and seriously questions the ACP-EU partnership.


The Ambassador of the Dominican Republic, His Excellency Dr Fredrico Alberto Cuello Camilo, re-iterated that the EU is negotiating with Central America on “too generous” terms.


He said that if the negotiation between the two parties is successful it would put ACP exporters out of business, adding that it would also result in the dislocation of economies and loss of jobs in the ACP countries concerned and might even impact on neighboring countries.


The Ambassador stated that in his country alone 15,000 families depend on bananas for employment, and they have also employed a lot of Haitians.Dr Cuello Camilo said that most of the economies that rely on bananas would collapse if the EU pushes ahead with the planned agreement with Central America.


The Ambassador of Jamaica, Her Excellency Mrs. Marcia Gilbert-Roberts, said the reduction of tariff from 176 Euros to 95 Euros would make it impossible for her farmers to compete on the European market.



Delegates from African banana exporting nations like Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Cameroon did also express the same concerns. The Charge d’Affairs of the Eastern Caribbean States, Dr Arnold Thomas, said that banana has been a source of livelihood of the states he represents and now it has been threatened.


The ACP appeals to the EU to honour the partnership and cautions that it’s the EU’s actions towards the Central Americans, would not send a right signal to the regions that have yet to sign off to an EPA.

European Parliamentarian says Pacific EPAs must be changed

By Online Editor
4:33 pm GMT+12, 27/11/2008, Papua New Guinea

A member of the European Parliament has told the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) – European Union (EU) joint parliamentary assembly meeting this week in Port Moresby that free trade deals initialled between the EU and Pacific countries must be changed to reflect the development needs of the region.

Glyn Ford, the Member of the European Parliament responsible for reporting on negotiations for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Pacific countries said he would recommend the European Parliament vote “no” to the interim agreement unless contentious issues in the interim EPAs are addressed.

Outlining concerns about the agreements for PNG and Fiji, Mr Ford said the European Commission should allow Pacific countries to use export taxes for development purposes and that EPAs should include adequate protection for infant industries. Mr Ford also said any new deal on services must allow Pacific workers entry into Europe to provide services.

Mr Ford raised concerns about intellectual property protection, saying new rules in the EPA should not be “just for Western technical artefacts”. He also said opening up public procurement to foreign business must be “consistent with Pacific states’ needs”.

Pacific Network on Globalisation coordinator Maureen Penjueli welcomed the intervention from Mr Ford. “We urge all members of the European Parliament to support Mr Ford’s recommendation and vote no if the European Commission fails to accept renegotiation of contentious clauses within the current interim EPAs,” said Ms Penjueli.

PNG and Fiji initialled interim-EPAs in late 2007 to protect market access for exports of tuna and sugar to Europe. If PNG and Fiji go ahead and sign the interim EPAs, the deals then go to the European Parliament for discussion and approval.

However, PNG and Fiji remain unhappy with the terms of the interim agreements. Throughout 2008, Pacific Trade Ministers have told the European Commission, the body responsible for negotiating Europe’s trade deals, that rules on export taxes, infant industry and the ‘Most Favoured Nation’ clause contained in the interim EPAs should be changed.

Today, Mr Ford asked the European Director-General for Development Louis Michel, if the European Commission would offer “feasible alternatives” that would allow Pacific countries to maintain market access to the European Union if they choose not to sign an EPA. Mr Michel responded in one word, saying “yes”.

Ms Penjueli said the EPA proposed by the European Commission posed serious dangers for Pacific countries – including dramatic losses in government revenue and the cutting off of policy space that could be used to stimulate development.

“The European Commission continues to be completely unreasonable in its negotiations with the Pacific,” said Ms Penjueli. “Given that the EPA has not been designed to meet the Pacific’s development needs, and that the Commission has shown a reluctance to move on key issues for Pacific negotiators, now is the time to start looking at alternatives.” She said the European Union should offer immediate access to the EU’s“Enhanced” General System of Preferences (GSP-plus) that would allow Pacific states to continue to access European markets, and that Pacific countries “should formally request these alternatives”.

More than 100 parliamentarians from across 27 EU countries and 79 ACP countries are meeting in Port Moresby this week to debate trade and development issues affecting their relationship as part of the 16th session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

SOURCE: PANG/PACNEWShttp://76.162.240.104/?p=pacnews&m=read&o=1366432178492e231813d286f84120&PHPSESSID=f9ed952f38a6c670cdb9570aa0bdea2f

Note:
Papua New Guinea currently has an export tax on the export of logs (worth well over K100million each year). PNG Forestry Minister, Belden Namah, also announced earlier this year plans to ban all round log exports by 2010 to encourage development of the local forestry industry. Under the terms of the interim EPA initialled by PNG in 2007, PNG will not be able to maintain export taxes on logs or impose new bans on log exports if it goes ahead and signs the deal.

Fiji currently has an export ban on round logs which has helped develop its local furniture industry.

Solomon Islands also has an export tax on round logs which accounts for around 14% of government revenue.

Letter from Ireland, Netherlands and Denmark

Letter seeking Justice for ACP

Rt. Hon. Baroness Ashton
Commissioner for Trade at the
European Commission
BRUSSELS

The Hague, November 7, 2008


Dear Baroness Ashton,

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment and we look forward to welcoming you personally at next week’s Development General Affairs and External Relations Council.

As you will be aware, negotiations between the EU and ACP countries on the Economic Partnership Agreements are at a critical stage. We welcome the comments you made at the recent European Parliament hearing, and particularly your commitment to giving a different character to ongoing regional negotiations.

By concluding interim agreements focussing on the trade in goods at the end of 2007, we were able to avoid trade disruption for most of the ACP countries concerned. However, as we are sure you will agree, we have much to do to ensure that EPAs genuinely live up to the goals formulated in the Cotonou Partnership Agreement. We therefore need to ensure that EPAs will actively support regional integration and contribute to a regulatory framework that will stimulate economic development.

If we are to succeed in this, we must be prepared to show more flexibility towards the countries and regions concerned in the next rounds of negotiations. In May of this year, the European Council already underlined how important it is to take a flexible approach to the transition from interim agreements to regional Economic Partnership Agreements and called on the Commission to make full use of the flexibility and asymmetry permissible under current WTO law so as to reflect the different development levels and development needs of the ACP countries and regions. Judging by the vast majority of reactions received from the

To demonstrate our commitment to building trust and confidence with our ACP partners, we believe that the EU should build on the dialogue that has already begun over the past year by responding positively to the specific ACP proposal for an EPA meeting at joint ministerial level. An informal ministerial meeting in the near future would underpin the ‘new approach’ that you have eloquently referred to in the European Parliament and could bring a new political impetus to the ongoing negotiations.

We are sure that, with a renewed political emphasis and stronger efforts at the technical level to address the issues highlighted above, the negotiations can be brought to a conclusion that is conducive to development. Again, we look forward to meeting you in person at the development GAERC next week when there will be an opportunity to discuss EPAs further. We would be very interested to hear your views on the topics outlined above and look forward to a fruitful exchange of views.

Yours sincerely,

Ms Ulla Tørnæs
Minister for Development Cooperation
Denmark

Peter Power T.D.
Minister of State for Overseas Development,
Department of Foreign Affairs
Ireland.

Bert Koenders
Minister for Development Cooperation
Kingdom of The Netherlands

Source: OXFAM

Mandelson Considered a Roughneck

It has always been our contention that one man, Peter Mandelson, held all the ACP to ransom, when in truth and in fact, his masters sing a different tune and dance to a different rhythm. Below is an article which states: "One of Mandelson's last acts as EU Trade Commissioner was to threaten Guyana, one of the poorest countries in the world, with financial penalties that could amount to €70m a year because the Guyanese government has so far refused to join an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the European Union." This is the man we are dealing with. It has been men like these that have defined the destiny of the world. Like the Pope that divided the world into three. See more below...

How Guyana brought out the bully in Mandy

Our pro-rich, neo-liberal system allows men like Mandelson to thrive, says Matthew Carr

Peter Mandelson donned his ermine robes and took his seat in the Lords yesterday, allowing him to return to the Cabinet. However, his spectacular political resurrection was marred by further sleaze allegations, this time regarding his possibly nepotistic relationship with a Russian billionaire.

According to the Sunday Times, the former EU Trade Commissioner recently enjoyed the hospitality of the aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska on his £80 million yacht in Corfu. Mandelson has denied these reports and rejected suggestions that his relationship with Deripaska might have anything to do with the EU's forthcoming reduction on tariffs on imports of raw aluminium from six to three per cent. The reports have again raised question marks about the "flawed judgment" of the scandal-prone politician known as "the prince of darkness". But the discussions about Mandelson's character miss a more fundamental point about the economic and political realities of the world we now inhabit.

One of Mandelson's last acts as EU Trade Commissioner was to threaten Guyana, one of the poorest countries in the world, with financial penalties that could amount to €70m a year because the Guyanese government has so far refused to join an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the European Union.

Guyana has criticised various "anti-developmental" conditions of the agreement, including the relaxation of barriers on foreign investment and clauses on intellectual property rights that would make it more difficult for Caribbean countries to patent their own generic medicines.

Similar criticisms of the EU's "free trade colonialism" have been made by other developing countries involved in the EPA negotiations. Various NGOs have also condemned the agreement, arguing that weak Caribbean economies will be swamped by more powerful European producers. Christian Aid has urged Caribbean governments not to sign the agreement, which is due to be formalised tomorrow, calling it "the relationship of the bully to the bullied".

Only Guyana has so far held out, despite a threat from the EU Commission to withdraw its preferential tariff status unless it complies. But the Guyanese Prime Minister Bharrat Jagdeo has admitted that he will have to accept the agreement despite its "anti-developmental character" to avoid economic disaster. No wonder that a report commissioned by the EU's rotating president, Nicolas Sarkozy, condemned the tactics - "pressure, paternalism and threats" - used by the EU commission during these negotiations.

We should not be surprised that the former communist-turned-peer played a key role in railroading lowly Guyana to the negotiating table. Long before he began to rub shoulders with Russian tycoons, the architect of New Labour was one of the more starry-eyed and zealous courtiers of the rich and powerful and has always assiduously pursued their interests. It is easy to be revolted by Mandelson's combination of smarm and flint-eyed opportunism, but it would be a mistake to interpret his political trajectory to deficiencies of character.

For Mandelson, ­ like the New Labour project itself, ­ symbolises the bullying arrogance of the neo-liberal creed that has dominated the world for the last three decades.

It is a world in which powerful countries prise open the economies of the poorest so that private corporations can control their food, their water and their electricity, where governments claim to be powerless to intervene in the workings of the 'free market' and yet are suddenly able to produce undreamt-of sums of money to bail out banks when they fail - our banks, not those of Russia, Argentina or Thailand which once went to the wall without receiving any bail-outs or offers of assistance.

We may well wonder at the motives of Gordon Brown for bringing one of his former political enemies back into the government. But as we shake our heads at the cynicism and moral blankness of the "prince of darkness" we might pause to consider that these vices are not just his: ­ they are part and parcel of the system that allows such men to flourish.
FIRST POSTED OCTOBER 14, 2008
The First Post