BBC Worldwide Monitoring | August 2, 2003
Text of report by Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) news agency on 1 August; subheadings as received, except for the first and last ones, which have been inserted editorially
Brussels: Developing countries, which make up the African, Caribbean and Pacific states (ACP) grouping on Friday 1 August agreed on a common position, ahead of the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico this September.
The position is reflected in a declaration issued at the end of the 31 July to 1 August ACP trade ministers' meeting here, which the group wants included as an official working document for the Cancun conference.
ACP trade ministers also appointed a single overall spokesperson for the whole group - Jacob Nkate, chairman of the ACP trade ministers' meeting and minister of trade and industry of Botswana. He will be assisted by deputies in charge of each of the main issues on the agenda of the Cancun conference.
In their Declaration, the ACP Ministers identified the following issues as being among the most crucial for Cancun : Doha Work programme (including special and differential treatment, implementation issues, agriculture, services), TRIPS Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights and public health, Singapore issues and the decision-making process.
Concerned by the slow progress in the implementation of the Doha work programme and that important deadlines on issues of particular interest to developing countries have been missed, the ACP considers that concrete progress has to be made in some of these issues, including special and differential treatment and implementation, before the Cancun ministerial meeting.
Agriculture
On agriculture, the ACP expressed concern at the failure to meet deadlines for the establishment of modalities for further commitments in agriculture and considers that progress in this matter is essential for the successful conclusion of the Doha work programme. The ACP reiterated the need to improve market access for all agricultural products originating from ACP states and the need for developed countries to eliminate the export subsidies and to reduce trade-distorting support, especially when having a negative impact on ACP countries.
More specifically, the ACP is calling on the Cancun ministerial conference to take a decision on the rapid elimination of subsidies to cotton and adopt measures so as to compensate those countries adversely affected by these practices. On sugar, they deeply regret the recourse to the WTO dispute-settlement procedures by Australia, Brazil and Thailand against the EU Sugar regime, which could result in serious adverse effects in the ACP states concerned.
TRIPS and public health
The ACP underscores the commitment in the Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health that the TRIPS agreement should be interpreted in a manner supportive of WTO's members' right to protect public health and to promote access to medicines for all. They are deeply concerned by the impasse in finding a solution to the issues and urge the WTO to forge a legally-binding, multilateral solution before the Cancun meeting.
Singapore issues
The ACP ministers reaffirm that the discussion in the WTO on these issues thus far confirms that each has its own peculiar aspects and complexities and that WTO members have not reached a common understanding on how any of these issues should be dealt with. They recognize that most ACP states do not have the capacity to negotiate meaningfully these issues. Furthermore, the benefits of negotiating a multilateral framework for all the Singapore issues are not evident and this, coupled with the fact of scarce resources and limited capacity in this area, does not provide a basis for the commencement of negotiations on these areas.
Decision-making process.
The ACP requires the creation of a transparent, democratic, all-inclusive and consultative decision-making process in the WTO. They want to be represented at all formal and informal meetings. They reiterate the importance of taking decisions by consensus.
Other issues; evaluation of ACP-EU accords
Among other issues addressed by the ACP Declaration are the following:
Services; Market access for non-agricultural products; Trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights; Anti-dumping and subsidies; Regional trade agreements; Dispute settlement; Trade and environment; Small economies; Trade; Debt and finance; Trade and transfer of technology, technical cooperation and capacity building.
In addition to the preparation of the WTO Ministerial Conference, ACP trade ministers undertook an evaluation of the state of negotiation of the ACP-EU economic partnership agreements. They emphasized that Phase I (negotiations All-ACP/EU) should result in a binding outcome for both the ACP and the EU.BBC Worldwide Monitoring:
