From Africa Recovery, Vol.12#2 (November 1998), Briefs page

EU and ACP states launch trade-aid negotiations

With little fanfare, the European Union (EU) and the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states opened negotiations in late September on the successor agreement to the present Lomé IV Convention, due to expire in February 2000. The Lomé Conventions have governed trade relations between EU and ACP states since 1975.

Many ACP states fear the talks could result in a significant scaling back of trade benefits for nearly a third of the 70 ACP states that are party to the convention. (South Africa, with partial Lomé membership status, is not covered by Lomé trade provisions and is not participating in the renegotiations.) The "better off" ACP states feel that the EU is pressuring them unfairly to accept free-trade accords. The poorest ACP countries are expected to continue to receive the benefits granted under the current convention.

Since mid-1995, South Africa and the EU have been holding a separate set of trade negotiations, long stalled due to disagreements on a number of issues including South Africa's use of the terms "port" and "sherry." Portugal and Spain have argued that a deal cannot be concluded until South Africa ends the practice of labeling its fortified wines as "port" and "sherry" -- terms which the two EU members consider associated with geographic regions in their countries.

By late October, however, South Africa's Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom reportedly was considering offering the EU concessions on the port/sherry issue in order to revive the talks.

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