EU threatens Pacific Small Island States Stand over ‘aid for trade’
3 Aug 2007
After the African countries reacting negatively to the EU’s ‘aid for trade’, its now turn for the Governments in the Pacific region. The countries have reacted furiously to a threat by the European Union that it will reduce the amount of development aid they receive if they delay on signing a free trade deal with the 27-nation bloc.
Fourteen island states in the Pacific are currently involved in negotiations aimed at reaching an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU by the end of this year.
Although the accord is supposed to relate to trade rather than development assistance, the EC has now warned the Pacific it can expect less aid if the Dec. 31 deadline is not met.
The Commission reportedly told the Pacific governments that they can expect some 95 million euros (130 million dollars) in a regional finance programme under the European Development Fund for 2008-13. Yet if no comprehensive trade agreement is reached this year, 48 percent of that sum would have to be "re-programmed". Francesco Affinito, deputy head of EC department handling relations with the Pacific on The 29th July, issued the statement.
James Bule, the trade minister for Vanuatu, a Pacific island with 209,000 inhabitants, has lodged a complaint over this threat with Louis Michel, the European commissioner for development. In his letter, Bule said that ministers from the Pacific wished to register their "grave concern and deep disappointment" at the threat. He also added that the 14 countries in the pacific, which have a combined population of eight million, "will not accept the EC (European Commission) imposing this type of linkage" between aid and trade and should not be linked to the EPAs.
Anti-poverty activists have severely crticised the EC’s step and called it to be an act of ‘bullying’. Marc Maes, a trade campaigner with a Belgian organisation said he would be asking EU governments to investigate the Commission's threat. He also claimed that the Commission is trying to dictate the terms of an agreement with the Pacific, without seriously examining proposals put forward by the islands' representatives.
The EC’s such act of linking the EPAs and the EDF s are not any isolated incidents. The Commission recently told a number of governments from Eastern and Southern Africa that the amount of development aid they are to receive will depend on the extent of trade liberalisation they will sign up to.
Botswana, Namibia and Lesotho and Swaziland are known to be perturbed at how the EU has been trying to persuade South Africa to liberalise its economy. These states are fearful that far-reaching liberalisation could have adverse consequences for their trade with South Africa.
In a new report, Oxfam has concluded that the Commission is taking an "uncompromising approach" towards the Pacific and is "essentially seeking a free trade agreement that is likely to provide better access for EU companies and goods while being damaging to Pacific businesses and people."
Some two-thirds of tariffs that the Pacific governments currently impose on imports from Europe would be eliminated under an EPA, depriving the countries concerned of the possibility to protect often "fragile" local firms from outside competitors. It seems that the Pacific countries are being blackmailed by the EC to do away with such protection measures.
Resource: www.ipsnews.net
Released on: Aug 3 2007
