Meeting of the ACP Ministerial Trade Committee  Honourable Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and Directors-General of Ministries responsible for Trade Issues in ACP States Excellency Ambassadors, Distinguished participants, It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to ACP House, for this Ministerial Trade Committee meeting. I am pleased to see many Ministers in our midst and this is encouraging since it is a clear demonstration of the seriousness that your respective Governments attach to ACP-EU trade relations and cooperation. Honourable Ministers, Senior officials met yesterday and this morning and have worked hard to prepare for your meeting. They have considered all the agenda items that will feature in the Joint ACP-EC Ministerial Trade Committee meeting (JMTC) which will be hosted by the European Commissioner for Trade, Baroness Catherine Ashton in Charlemagne Building on Thursday morning. The main purpose of the JMTC meeting is to take stock of the progress on the negotiations and implementation of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), deliberate on the impact of global recession on trade, consider the hiatus in the Doha Development Round as well as pertinent issues arising from the current ACP-EU trade arrangements. The outcome of the JMTC will be presented to the Joint ACP-EU Council of Ministers at its next session planned for Brussels on 29 May 2009. We hope that some of you will be able to return to Brussels for the Council session. In the course of your meeting, the Senior Officials will have an opportunity to present the outcome of their work and provide specific recommendations on the subjects to be discussed at the JMTC. Honourable Ministers Your meeting is taking place when the world is facing a global recession brought about by the economic and financial crisis. It has been observed that for most ACP States, the crisis is characterized by slowdown in growth rates, export decline and job loses in sectors such as mining and forestry, food crisis and exchange rate depreciation. It is also features instability in financial systems, decline in remittances and tourism receipts and a fall in foreign investment and aid, leading to a decline in government revenue. Therefore, ACP States need a lot of assistance by development partners and in particular, the international financial institutions. Therefore, it is fitting that the agenda for your meeting this afternoon will kick off with an exchange of views on the impact of global financial crisis on trade, based on a presentation by Mr Lars Thunell, Vice President and CEO of the International Financial Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank. We are indeed grateful to Mr Thunell for honouring us with his presence and agreeing to make a presentation on what the World Bank and in particular the IFC, is doing to assist developing countries to cope with the economic and financial crisis. Therefore, as you address the issues in your agenda, you can not ignore the global context in which the ACP States currently find themselves in. Concerning the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), which is the key topical issue for the ACP Ministers of Trade, attention has been focused on the range of unresolved issues that remain contentious between the EU and the concerned ACP States and regions. While both sides have recognized the need to continue negotiations, there is no agreement on how the issues will be treated. The EC insists on addressing these issues when moving towards full EPAs while some ACP States and regions prefer to have these fully addressed, even before signing the interim EPAs. This is an intricate issue that you would have to consider and take a position before the JMTC. On WTO issues, the conclusion has eluded the negotiators and here Ministers may wish to exchange views on how the EC could support the conclusion of a development friendly Doha round. I do not intend to make a long statement, but instead hope to afford you adequate time to complete your work today and tomorrow. I again welcome you and to wish you a successful meeting.
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