Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 29 Fri. June 25, 2004  
   
Business


Poor countries urged to unite for EU trade talks


Poor countries must press the European Union for group trade benefits and not allow themselves to be divided in economic negotiations, a group of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) leaders heard Wednesday.

Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano, opening a summit of the 79-member ACP group, said solidarity was more important than ever as the developing world sought to get the best deals possible out of new regional EU trade agreements, or Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).

"The negotiation process of the Economic Partnership Agreements should be used to reinforce the regional cooperation and not for the collapse of our organisational blocs," Chissano told the meeting, which lasts until Thursday.

ACP members and the EU have agreed to revise trade arrangements that give ACP producers special access to EU markets and development aid.

Rather than agreeing one accord, the sides have agreed that the EU will negotiate EPAs with six regional groups inside the ACP before a 2008 deadline.

The Southern Africa Devel-opment Community (SADC), which includes the continent's economic powerhouse South Africa, will start its EPA talks in July.

The new trade arrangements have raised concerns that the ACP will find itself divided just as its member states push for better access to Europe's massive internal market particularly in agriculture.

Irish Trade Minister Michael Ahern, representing the EU at the summit, said the European Union had undertaken significant reforms since the failure of the Cancun trade talks in 2003 and would approach the EPA negotiations with flexibility.

"The agreements will improve the current level of preferential markets access for ACP countries into the (European Union). They must foster the smooth and gradual integration of the ACP states into the world economy," Ahern said.

Chissano, who also serves as president of the African Union, said the ACP group needed to define an clear agenda to legitimise the group as a coherent international bloc.