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Marking a milestone in the EU-West Africa EPA negotiations, the EU made its formal commitment to the West Africa EPA Development Programme (commonly known by its French acronym, PAPED) on 10 May 2010, which includes a pledge to inject €6.5 billion into the programme over the next five years. In our lead feature this month, the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) argues that the programme has an innovative potential but suffers from a conservative commitment by the EU. Indeed, ECDPM notes that the €6.5 billion figure represents support already identified as forthcoming for PAPED-related activities.
Against this background, TNI provides a platform for an EU and the West African representative to comment on the programme, giving the floor to Hon. Alhaji Mohamed Daramy, ECOWAS Commissioner for Trade, Customs and Free Movement of Persons and Goods, and Soraya Rodriguez, the Spanish Secretary of State for International Cooperation.
Also in this issue, we offer two guest features focused on food security: a theme we have followed closely in TNI in recent months. While there is no doubt that the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries face massive challenges in ensuring their populations have secure access to nutritious food, there is less consensus on the question of whether liberalising their markets under EPAs will exacerbate the problem. Shedding new light on this debate, Alan Matthews, Professor of European Agricultural Policy at Trinity College, finds little evidence that the EPAs will threaten the livelihoods of fragile farmers by opening the floodgates on cheap EU food products. But he does uncover, to varying degrees, other border measures that could impact on food security in ACP countries.
Our next feature, by Professor Timothy Josling, professor emeritus at Stanford University, anticipates what we can expect from EU and US agricultural policies in the coming years, and the impact of these policies on food security in developing countries. Finding few reasons to be overly optimistic on either side of the Atlantic, Professor Josling stresses the importance of concluding a deal at the WTO that would constrain trade-distorting farm policies in the future. He also suggests that a major food scheme in the US - the food stamp programme -may offer a model for a multilateral arrangement that helps rebalance food and farm policies.
Finally, we feature recommendations for a development strategy that can be delivered quickly and painlessly - extending ‘duty-free, quota-free’ market access to LDCs under trade-preference programmes. Based on the recommendations of a recently convened expert group, Kimberly Ann Elliott, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, offers five practical steps for implementing trade preferences in ways that ensure tangible benefits to LDCs.
As always, the editorial team at ECDPM and ICTSD welcomes feedback or offers to contribute articles. These can be directed to tni@ictsd.ch.
To subscribe electronically to TNI, please go to http://ictsd.org/news/tni/ or request a hard copy at: http://ictsd.org/subscribe/english/?publication=tni
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