EPA negotiations are launched
At the opening of the ACP- EU trade negotiations on September 27th 2002 EU Development Commissioner Poul Nielson emphasised the importance of regional integration. He pointed to the ways in which it increases the size of markets, helps to promote diversification and stability and helps to develop institutional and business capacity, all of which serve to promote foreign direct investment. The Commission press release on the eve of the negotiations reiterated the Commission's aim of moving to regional-level negotiations in 2003. The Commissioner also stressed that one of the objectives of EPAs was to make regional trade a real engine of growth. He argued that the EU was not interested in forcing ACP states to open their markets to European exports; what mattered more was that ACP states should open their markets to each other. Comment: Despite his emphasis on the importance of local and regional markets in trade and development, Commissioner Nielson paid scant attention to the likely impact on local and regional trade of duty-free access for EU exports in ACP markets. Neither did he mention the likely impact of a reformed CAP on the export competitiveness of EU agricultural and processed-food products. The Commission's emphasis on supporting production for national and regional markets sits uneasily with its neglect of these dimensions of its EPA proposals.
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | News Item biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
2002
|
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/52579 http://agritrade.cta.int/Back-issues/Agriculture-monthly-news-update/2002/November-2002 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|