CAP reform and the market access debate
Citation
CTA. 2003. CAP reform and the market access debate. Agritrade, November 2003. CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Permanent link to cite or share this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/52776
External link to download this item: http://agritrade.cta.int/Back-issues/Agriculture-monthly-news-update/2003/November-2003
Abstract/Description
At the informal agricultural council meeting in Taormina on September
...
Notes
At the informal agricultural council meeting in Taormina on September
22nd 2003 the theme for discussion was 'Converging agricultural
policy goals in the developing countries and the EU'. At this meeting
Commissioner Fischler highlighted how EU development projects in
developing countries were aimed at enabling developing country producers
to 'derive practical benefit from growing markets' by helping them
in 'meeting international export standards'. He noted that these
measures are 'intended to help growers to shift away from merely
producing basic products and agricultural commodities and move higher
up the value-added chain by processing them as well'.
Turning to the failure in Cancun, Commissioner Fischler maintained
that an agreement in Cancun would have led to:
drastic cuts in trade-distorting aid and thus to a reform of
agricultural policy in countries where none had been made so far
(e.g. in the USA);
greater access to markets in the industrialised countries for
products from the developing countries;
differentiated and less strict disciplines for developing countries;
further trade liberalisation to the benefit of developing countries.
Commissioner Fischler argued for greater differentiation in the
status of developing countries to allow trade preferences to be
targeted more on the poorest developing countries. Measures such
as the EBA could then offer the greatest benefits to those who need
them most.
Comment:
Commissioner Fischler's call for more differentiation in the development
status of developing countries offers opportunities for a more differentiated
GSP system. Such an approach could be very useful for non-LDC ACP
countries which currently face the reimposition of duties on a substantial
range of the products they export, should they revert to standard
GSP treatment. A move to a more differentiated GSP system in favour
of non-LDC ACP countries (and those with a similar level of development)
would reduce the punitive aspects of reversion to GSP for those
countries which do not find themselves in a position to conclude
an EPA with the EU.
Ironically one of the main objectives of the proposals that the
EU is supporting (helping ACP countries to move up the value chain)
runs in direct contradiction to a core component of the reformed
CAP, namely supporting the shift within the EU away from the export
of agricultural raw materials towards the export of value-added
food products. Growing exports of EU simple value-added food products
to ACP markets can undermine the domestic and regional market base
on which more sophisticated value-added food product exports from
ACP countries to the EU can be built up.
Organizations Affiliated to the Authors
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural CooperationCollections
- CTA Agritrade [1158]