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

ACP rejects proposals to drastically reduce current applied banana rate

ACP PRESS STATEMENT

December 22, 2008

The African, Caribbean and Pacific Council of Ministers has rejected any proposals to immediately and drastically reduce the current applied rate of 176 euros/tonne by down-payment and to further reduce the tariff to an unacceptable level after a relatively short implementation period.

This resolution is contained in strong resolutions on Bananas and Sugar adopted by the ACP Council of Ministers Meeting, which ended last week in Brussels.

On Bananas, the ACP Group insists that the EU refrains from taking any steps, including in the framework of the conclusion of new Free Trade Areas (FTAs) with the Most Favoured Nations (MFN) countries that might render nugatory the market access secured by the conclusion of EPAs.

ACP Ministers also deplored the recent conclusions contained in the report of the WTO Appellate Body which, by adopting a purely legalistic approach, concluded that the EC applied duty on banana imports is inconsistent with provisions of the General Agreements on Tariff and Trade (GATT) 1994.

The ACP Group urges the EU to ensure that any solution arrived at with MFN countries at the WTO incorporates necessary targeted technical assistance, including additional financial and capacity building assistance that would allow ACP banana exporting countries to adjust their industries to new trade regime.
They believe that any lowering of the current MFN rate entails a reduction in the ACP preferential margin and ultimately, the potential viability of ACP banana exports.

The Council calls on the EU not to engage in any rebuilding exercise at the WTO before the modalities, which will apply for tariff reduction in the case of bananas, as a result of the Doha Round negotiations are ascertained.

The ministers further re-iterated their invitation to the EU to continue working towards a stand alone solution for Bananas as part of the WTO Doha Round negotiations.

SUGAR
ACP Ministers re-affirmed that the outcome of the WTO Doha Development negotiations should be balanced and reflect the interests of all members and that in this respect should take into account the interests of countries benefiting from longstanding preferences and those affected by preference erosion.

The ministers further urged the EU and the EC in the framework of the WTO Doha negotiations to make full use of all the provisions of relevant WTO texts and agreements such as the Hong Kong Declaration which recognized the importance of long standing preferences and mandated that preference erosion be addressed in the negotiations.

ACP Ministers re-iterated that if the outcome of the WTO Doha Development Agenda negotiations to be balanced, there must be suitable treatment for products that are benefiting from long standing preferences, and if this not the case, ACP countries will find it extremely difficult to associate themselves with any consensus.

For details contact: iroga@acp.int