From Africa Recovery, Vol.13#4 (December 1999), page 32 (box within article on trade)

ACP countries defend trade preferences

The 71 member countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific group (ACP) are negotiating a renewal of the trade and aid agreement with the European Union (EU), known as the Lomé Convention. The current convention runs out on 28 February 2000. Negotiators were optimistic following a 7-9 December round of talks in Brussels that a new accord would be finalized before the expiration date. Under the new arrangement, Lomé V, the EU would agree to provide E13.8 bn ($14.1 bn) in aid during 2000-2005 through the European Development Fund and another E1.7 bn in loans through the European Investment Bank.

However, extension of the favourable trade preferences for ACP countries has fallen under the shadow of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Since the first Lomé Convention in 1975, the ACP countries -- all former European colonies -- have enjoyed preferential access to European markets for many of their exports. But because they are not required to extend comparable preferences to European goods entering their own markets, the arrangement is deemed to violate the WTO's insistence on "reciprocity."

Previously, the EU applied for and received a waiver from the WTO to permit "non-reciprocal" preferences. It could seek another formal waiver, but has not yet publicly committed itself to such a course. Instead, EU negotiators have been trying to win agreement from the ACP countries on ways of bringing the Lomé Convention's trade arrangements in line with WTO rules. The ACP countries have argued that they need at least 10 years for their economies to adapt to more liberalized trade practices. A compromise worked out by the negotiators in Brussels provides for an 8-year "roll-over" period for current preferences, while a new, more open trade regime would be implemented over another 10-12 years.

Yet anxiety remains high. A meeting of the ACP states in the Dominican Republic just a few days before the opening of the WTO gathering in Seattle issued a strong plea for giving developing countries time to adapt to global competition. Madagascar President Didier Ratsiraka drew the strongest applause when he lashed out at globalization as a "totalitarian doctrine" and accused the WTO of seeking to impose rules "on all human activities, defining them from now on as commercial objects."

In the wake of the failure of the Seattle meeting, the EU should not be so worried about bringing the Lomé Convention within WTO rules, Côte d'Ivoire Minister of Commodities Guy-Alain Gauze said at a press conference during the subsequent Brussels negotiations.

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