Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 6 • Number 25 • 3rd July 2002

ACP Ministers Call For Greater EU Assistance


On 28 June, delegates from the group of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries’ Council of Ministers concluded their 2-day meeting in the Dominican Republic and requested a new development aid package from the EU. The ACP demands come at a time when negotiations for reciprocal trade agreements between the EU and the ACP are a few months away (September 2002). Officials from the 78 ACP nations indicated that they planned to demand that the EU “compensate them for tariff revenues that will be lost as they eliminate trade barriers in the next several years.” For the ACP, this is seen as a critical condition for acceptability of the yet-to-be-negotiated agreements (see BRIDGES Weekly, 26 June 2002).

The EU is however not prepared to promise any additional aid for lost tariff revenues, though future negotiations with individual countries have not been ruled out. According to EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Poul Nielson, “compensation is already included in the 25-year Cotonou agreement,” a pact signed by EU and ACP members in 2000 that aims to bring the former colonies 13.5 billion euros in aid over the next five years. The agreement however still awaits ratification by many EU nations.

At the Council of Ministers meeting, ACP countries also agreed to ask the EU to extend trade preferences for their sugar, banana and rice industries at the ACP summit in Fiji from July 16-19. This request came in view of the fact that ACP countries’ favoured trade quotas with Europe on bananas are to be phased out between 2002 and 2006, and sugar and rice quotas are to be phased out from 2006 to 2009. Another issue that arose at the Dominican Republic session — and which sources say is likely to feature at the Fiji Summit — is the Cotonou Agreement’s provisions that condition EU aid on recipient countries that have democratic systems and that have safeguards against corruption. The ACP countries expressed concern that this may be an avenue for interference in their internal political systems. As a result, they are now working on guidelines on the political issues they are willing to negotiate.

“EU, Former European Colonies Discuss Free Trade, Development Aid,” ASSOCIATED PRESS, 6 June 2002.