Deadline for signing trade deals with the EU extended

Author (Person)
Series Title
Series Details 13.12.07
Publication Date 13/12/2007
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The European Commission is hopeful that few developing countries will have tariffs imposed on their exports to the EU from 1 January, when the preferential trading system with the Union comes to an end.

It has extended the deadline by which countries can sign deals to allow their products onto EU markets without substantial tariffs to 20 December and said that those which sign deals but do not have them legally in place from the start of the year will have refunded any duties imposed.

But four EU member states - the UK, the Netherlands, Ireland and Denmark - believe that the Commission has not been conciliatory enough in talks with some countries from the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) region.

"We continue to urge the Commission to show flexibility in reaching agreements on goods market access by the end of 2007 and to avoid ACP countries being made worse off from the 1st January," said a declaration published by the four countries on Monday.

Over 25 countries in the ACP region which do not qualify as ‘least developed countries’ have yet to sign deals with the EU to allow their products access to EU markets without substantial tariffs from the start of next year. Of these some 18 states - including the 14 Caribbean states, the Republic of Congo, Ghana, Cameroon and Gabon - are major exporters to the EU and stand to lose when tariffs are imposed. Least developed countries, or very poor countries, will continue to have duty-free, quota-free access to EU markets.

Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told the foreign ministers that he expected agreements with Cameroon and Gabon soon and said that he believed the Caribbean "now wishes to move ahead". Countries which signed deals in the last week include the Comores, Ghana, the Ivory Coast and Madagascar. At the time European Voice went to press, Namibia, too, was expected to sign a deal.

The market access deals have been hastily put in place following the admission by the Commission that it could not finalise the economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with the six ACP regions, designed to replace the preferential trading system with broader trade development initiatives.

The EPAs featured prominently at the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon last week (8-9 December) with the leaders of South Africa and Senegal denouncing the EU’s insistence on imposing tariffs from 1 January.

But Mandelson told EU ministers this week that the deadline was important. "It is due to the external deadline of 31 December which has allowed those in the ACP who want to do these deals to make the case domestically that it is necessary to do so now," he said.

The European Commission is hopeful that few developing countries will have tariffs imposed on their exports to the EU from 1 January, when the preferential trading system with the Union comes to an end.

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