• A business-led approach to trade and production adjustment: Lessons from the Caribbean rum programme
    The competitiveness of private sector companies is critical for the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries to benefit from the market-access opportunities and adapt to the increased competition from imports that result from free trade agreements. Unfortunately, donor support to the private sector has often proven ineffective and the state-focussed procedures of the…
  • Editorial
    Think of Caribbean products and what comes to mind? Certainly rum and bananas are synonymous with the island countries. But recent developments have awakened alarm that producers of these goods are under threat. In the case of rum, one concern stems from the closure of a special programme funded by the European Union to help Caribbean…
  • News and Publications
    ACP-EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement undergoes second revision The Cotonou Partnership Agreement - the framework for EU-ACP relations - underwent its second revision on 19 March. The African Union has, for the first time, become a partner to the agreement, which according to the EU reflects a new emphasis on regional integration as a priority.…
  • A betrayal of the Caribbean rum industry
    Caribbean sugar, Caribbean bananas, now Caribbean rum; soon there will be nothing left but the words. The European Commission (EC) convinced Caribbean’s negotiators to sign a full Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) in 2007 on the basis that it was not necessary to include specific language on rum because it…
  • Should South Africa join the SADC EPA? An analysis of the costs and benefits
    South Africa and the European Union are at a standoff. While Southern African countries and the EU negotiate an Economic Partnership Agreement, South Africa has been reluctant, for a number of reasons, to forgo its bilateral free trade agreement with the EU. Manoj Pant considers the economic and political costs for South Africa, should it…
  • A virtuous circle for adding value to the ACP fisheries sector
    What is the best way for the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to benefit from the opportunities brought about by international trade in the fisheries sector? This article argues that it consists, on the one hand, in focusing on the ‘quality’ rather than ‘quantity’ of fish products, while, on the other,…
  • New threats facing Windward Islands banana farmers
    Banana farmers in the Caribbean have faced multiple setbacks in recent years, including strong pressure from retailers to keep down prices, crop diseases, and a November 2009 deal at the WTO that provides Latin American banana producers with improved market access to the EU - a key export market for Caribbean farmers. Renwick Rose considers…
  • Trade negotiations in East Africa: Insights from the East African Business Council
    Infrastructure bottlenecks, non-tariff barriers, unpredictable policy decisions: these are some of the problems commonly voiced by African businesses. To this list, the East African Business Council (EABC) - the business association representing Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania - adds another: “lack of active private sector involvement in trade policy formulation”[1]. In an effort to reverse…
  • WTO Roundup
    Concluding Doha is ‘Top Priority’: Cairns Ministers Trade ministers from the Cairns Group of countries - a 19-member bloc that supports far-reaching farm-trade reform - said an ambitious and balanced outcome to farm trade talks in the WTO’s Doha Round must be “top priority” for the organisation’s members, at a ministerial meeting on 19-20 April in Punte…
  • EPA Update
    ACP Stakeholders seek to harmonize their positions among negotiating groups On 20-21 May, the African Union Commission will hold a workshop in Abuja, Nigeria, that will gather EPA negotiators and advisors from the five African regions involved in EPA negotiations, representatives of the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the regional representative of the negotiating groups in…
  • Resources
    All references are available at: www.acp-eu-trade.org/library Draft Council Decision on the position to be adopted by the European Union within the ACP-EU Council of Ministers concerning the accession of the Republic of South Africa to the revised ACP-EU Partnership Agreement, Council of the European Union, Brussels, 14 April 2010, http://register.consilium.europa.eu Building on Global Europe: The…
  • Events
    May 3-7     Meeting of the West African EPA Ministerial Monitoring Committee, Bamako, Mali 3-7     Oceania Customs Annual Conference, Apia, Western Samoa 4-6      IDB/INTAL-WTO Caribbean seminar on regional trading arrangements, Barbados 10-12   EPA information seminar for South Africa, Capetown, SA 13-14   Thirtieth Meeting of the CARICOM Council for Trade and Economic Development…