BRUSSELS: The European Union (EU) is likely to conclude interim trade pacts with most members of the 78-nation Africa, Caribbean and Pacific group before a Dec 31 deadline, averting a drop in market access for the developing countries, the EU's trade chief said, reports AP
Peter Mandelson said five years of often arduous negotiations with the group "have turned a corner ... and agreements are in sight for most regions."
The ACP nations had been split into six regions for the trade talks – the Caribbean, the Pacific, southern Africa, eastern Africa, western Africa and central Africa – to foster regional integration and to meet world trade rules.
The Geneva-based World Trade Organisation (WTO) backed complaints by poor nations outside the ACP group that the 30-year privileged market access Europe granted its former colonies was unfair to other countries.
The WTO set an end-of-year deadline for the EU to conclude the new trade pacts to replace the existing system.
Mandelson said after an “intense week of negotiations," a basis for an interim deal with the Pacific group of countries was likely before the end of December.”
That initial deal would lead to a full, so-called Economic Partnership Agreement in 2008.
He also said he hoped to conclude negotiations with the east Africans and Caribbean group by the end of the year.
“Our greatest challenges remain in West and Central Africa. We have not received any market access offers in these regions,” Mandelson told a European Parliament committee. – PNS
"We have shown all possible flexibility by offering interim deals."
The EU trade chief warned, however, that some countries could be left out because of their reluctance to accept the new trade deals.
EU officials mentioned Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa, which have said the deals will do little to boost their access to European markets and promote development.
Nations that do not reach accords with the EU by January will automatically lose the preferential privileges that have been in place for three decades and receive only limited access to EU markets under existing world trade rules, Mandelson warned. - PNS
This, would leave ACP members - many of which are among the world's poorest nations - with a shrinking share of access to lucrative EU markets for their agricultural goods, such as sugar and bananas. He said demands by anti-poverty groups and some African nations to keep the existing aid-and-trade accord in place was not an option.PNS