Civil society organisations and social movements from African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries launched a coordinated protest last April 19 to call for the stop of the European Union’s (EU) unfair trade deals. Find out their demands and recommendations.

Thousands of activists, community groups, workers, farmers, and campaigners from across the world joined together on April 19, 2007 in coordinated actions to call for the stop of the European Union's (EU) unfair trade deals.

At present, Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are being negotiated between the EU and 76 African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries, of which 39 are least developed countries. EPAs are comprehensive free trade agreements that are set to force ACP regions to eliminate trade barriers to almost all EU imports.

Many ACP countries, especially in Africa, have indicated that they are not ready to sign such agreements. However, the EU is threatening to reinstate higher import duties on ACP exports and reduce aid to ACP countries if they do not sign EPAs by the December 31, 2007 deadline.

The EU’s move runs contrary to the Cotonou Agreement, a treaty between the EU and the group of ACP countries signed in June 2000 in Cotonou, Benin and entered into force in 2002. The Cotonou Agreement is aimed at the reduction and eventual eradication of poverty while contributing to sustainable development and to the gradual integration of ACP countries into the world economy.

Among the recommendations of the civil society organisations and social movements worldwide include the following:

1. Offer alternatives
The European Commission has been pursuing very stringent negotiation schedules and has pushed the negotiations regarding trade and development cooperation with ACP countries towards reciprocal Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). According to the Cotonou Agreement, the EU is obliged to offer ACP countries alternatives to EPAs should countries not be in a position or willing to conclude an EPA.

2. Take the time pressure off negotiations
The EPAs negotiations are scheduled to be completed before the end of 2007 so that they can enter into force on January 1, 2008. However, less than a year before the deadline, the ACP countries still cannot oversee the complex consequences that EPAs would have for their economies because of a lack of solid impact assessments and the fact that a number of fundamental issues remain unresolved. EU Member States and the European Commission must seriously consider the request for extending the negotiations in order to live up to their promises under the Cotonou Agreement: “The ACP States shall determine the development strategies for their economies and societies in all sovereignty...”

3. Maintain non-reciprocity and the right to protect
In order to respond to the development needs of ACP countries, including the protection of small farmers, local markets, and infant industries; job creation and the promotion of rural development; and to guarantee the necessary policy space for these governments to pursue their own development strategies, the EU should not demand reciprocal market opening by the ACP. Any future trade agreement would have to entail adequate and easily applicable safeguard mechanisms and would need to allow for the continuation of tariff protection on a far greater share of their imports than the EU is currently prepared to accept.

4. Promote self-determined regional integration processes
Article 35.2 of the Cotonou Agreement reads: “Economic and trade cooperation shall build on regional integration initiatives of ACP States, bearing in mind that regional integration is a key instrument for the integration of ACP countries into the world economy.” Trade cooperation should support ACP countries’ existing policy priorities and autonomous initiatives to build and consolidate their own regional and interregional markets as well as fully respect regional development strategies.

5. Unconditional exclusion of new trade-related issues and World Trade Organisation (WTO)-plus provisions
The EU is stipulating more liberalisation in the services sector and more stringent intellectual property rules than agreed in the WTO. The EU should stop insisting on the inclusion of new issues including investment, competition policy, and government procurement as well as of WTO-plus provisions for services and intellectual property rights in any trade arrangement with ACP countries.

6. Ensure transparency and civil society participation
The Cotonou Agreement calls for the participation of civil society organisations “in order to encourage the integration of all sections of society...into the mainstream of political, economic and social life.” Hence, the European Commission, EU Member States, and ACP governments should hold comprehensive consultations with civil society organisations due to their “complementary role of and potential for contributions...to the development process” and especially with the representative organisations of farmers and workers as the sectors most heavily affected by the envisaged trade agreements.

 For the full text of the Agreement, see <http://www.acpsec.org/en/conventions/cotonou/accord1.htm>.

Sources:
“Pacific NGOs Protest 'Unfair' European Trade Deal” from Pacific Magazine, posted on April 18, 2007, <http://www.pacificmagazine.net/news/2007/04/18/pacific-ngos-protest-unfair-european-trade-deal>.
“Stop the European Union's unfair trade deals” from AfricaFile, posted on April 18, 2007, <http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=14772&ThisURL=./ecjustice.asp&URLName=Economic%20Justice>.
“Stop unfair trade deals between Europe and ACP countries!” from bilaterals.org, posted on February 2, 2007, <http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=7135>.