| ACP senior officials begin preparatory meeting for ACP Ministerial Trade Committee
A two-day meeting for senior
officials and ACP Technical Follow-up Group on the EPA negotiations and
implementation has opened in
This meeting precedes the ACP Ministerial Trade Committee
and Joint ACP-EC Ministerial Trade Committee due to take place later this week.
Speaking at the opening, ACP Secretary-General Sir John
Kaputin said that the aim of the meeting was to come up with
concrete recommendations for the ACP Ministers of Trade meeting on Tuesday and
Wednesday.
Principal amongst the topics for discussion
were the concerns of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) process in relation
to the remaining aspects of the negotiations for the regions concerned, and
implementation issues for the regions that have completed the negotiations.
ACP Regions would be providing
information on how their respective regions have progressed so far.
The Secretary-General anticipated that by sharing experiences, including
successes and shortcomings in the process, participants would come out more
informed and would learn from one another.
Besides EPAs, the
meeting would also be discussing actions taken by the European Community regarding
the ever increasing non-tariff measures that could impede ACP exports into
Sir John reiterated that: “We have seen
a proliferation of EU regulations, legislative proposals and other measures
that threaten ACP trade.”
He
told the participants that they may not be in a position to address every
concern.
“What we hope to achieve is to establish a workable system so that before our partners can legislate a measure,
all the ACP concerns and interests in that specific matter can be adequately
taken into account,” he said.
Sir John believes that this is
imperative if the ACP- EU partnership will continue to flourish.
On the WTO process, the
Secretary-General said that the ACP States have been disappointed that the
promised development round has eluded all the negotiators.
He believed that the situation was
exacerbated by the serious financial and economic crisis confronting the whole
world with the most devastating effects being felt by the developing countries.
The impact of the current global
economic recession on trade completes the agenda for the meeting.
Sir John said that ACP States are
facing numerous challenges brought about by the global economic, food, fuel and
financial crisis.
He said ACP states are witnessing a slow down on growth
rates, declines in exports occasioned by a reduction in export demand, and low
and volatile prices for export commodities.
“We face a serious fall in tourism earnings and foreign
remmittances as well as job losses in high employment sectors such as mining.
We fear that foreign investments and aid support will be reduced and yet this
is when these are needed most by our countries,” Sir John said.
He pointed out that the question of what can be done in the
context of the ACP-EU Partnership is what the meeting would address, in order to
advise the ACP Trade Ministers accordingly.
The meeting attended by senior officials
from most of the ACP countries is expected to be completed by Tuesday noon with
the finalisation of recommendations for the ministers’ meeting which starts
later in the same afternoon.
For details contact: iroga@acp.int
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