Lamy offers some further reflections on Cancun
Citation
CTA. 2003. Lamy offers some further reflections on Cancun. Agritrade, December 2003. CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Permanent link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10568/52820
Abstract/Description
In a speech to the European Institute
in Washington on November...
Notes
In a speech to the European Institute
in Washington on November 4th 2003 EU Trade Commissioner Pascal
Lamy reflected on the causes of the failure of the Cancun WTO Ministerial.
He noted that the G90 - the ACP countries, together with other LDCs
- may not have felt that they had 'a large enough stake in these
negotiations to want them to succeed'. He recognised their concern
over the process of preference erosion on the EU market, saying
that 'we clearly have to address this concern, or the development
round simply will not succeed'.
This followed statements to a conference of
the Journal of Common Market Studies where Commissioner Lamy highlighted
African concerns that 'they had relatively little to gain and relatively
much to lose in terms of their preferences, in a successful, multilateral
market-opening outcome.
Comment:
How the EU intends to address the issue of preference erosion is
clearly a critical factor for the ACP in their approach both to
WTO and EPA negotiations. It remains to be seen what of substance
the EC will come up with to address this issue. To date for example,
the Commission has shown little inclination to explore the concept
of 'compensatory trade measures' as a vehicle for addressing the
decline in the value of ACP trade preferences arising as a consequence
of CAP reform. Were the EU to substantially develop and apply this
concept under existing Cotonou Agreement mechanisms, ACP and LDC
fears over preference erosion at the WTO level could begin to diminish.
Subjects
MARKETING AND TRADE;Collections
- CTA Agritrade (English) [583]