This report makes proposals for the practical integration of development perspectives in the European Partnership Agremeements EPA negotiations. It focuses on ensuring that EPAs can be used as an instrument to work towards the Millennium Development Goals and beyond, primarily by advocating for the use of benchmarks against which to assess the conduct and outcome of the ACP-EU trade negotiations.
The paper notes that a clear and positive link between development strategies and the new trade rules to be generated by these negotiations has still to be developed and articulated in practical terms. Since the EU’s initial proposal in 1996 to negotiate EPAs with ACP regional groupings, all parties have stressed the necessity for EPAs not be standard reciprocal free trade agreements (FTAs), but instead to constitute ‘tools for development’. However, in practice this has not been the case.
The paper highlights three priorities for the EPAs to reach competition and equity goals:
- EPAs are to facilitate the structural transformation of ACP economies; therefore they should encompass co-ordinated programmes to address the major supply-side constraints which inhibit competitive production of internationally tradable goods and services in ACP countries
- trade liberalisation should be co-ordinated with efforts aimed at strengthening the capacities of domestic manufacturing and service sectors, so as to avoid closing-off areas of potential growth and development-oriented structural change in ACPs
- equity issues in development – such as poverty alleviation and elimination of gender discrimination in access to economic opportunities – must be simultaneously addressed in many public policy areas, including policies related to enhancing competitiveness
According to the report, benchmarks are necessary for judging how closely the EPA outcomes will fulfil the priorities of competitiveness and equity. It recommends that the monitoring process be categorised around three key areas:
- market access and fair trade – for example, improved entry to EU markets through traditional mechanisms, and preferential tariff treatment
- policy instruments, such as border measures like tariffs
- resources for development support , such as access to additional EU resources needed for adjustment and overcoming supply-side constraints