RESOLUTION(1)

on the WTO millennium round of negotiations with special reference to ACP sugar

The ACP-EU Joint Assembly,

- meeting in Strasbourg (France) from 29 March to 1 April 1999,

A. recalling the Marrakesh agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation, in particular the preamble in which the parties to the agreement recognised, inter alia, that their relations in the field of trade and economic endeavour should be conducted with a view to raising standards of living etc. in accordance with the objective of sustainable development while seeking to protect and preserve the environment,

B. recalling also that the parties agreed that there was need for positive efforts designed to ensure that developing countries, and especially the least developed among them, secure a share in growth in international trade commensurate with the needs of their economic development,

C. considering that under the forthcoming review it is likely that there will be amendments to the Agreement on Agriculture and the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures which could have an impact on the preferential trading sugar,

D. reaffirming its resolution on sugar adopted during the 26th Session held in Port Louis (Mauritius) from 20 to 23 April 1998,

E. recalling the resolution on sugar adopted at 68th Session of the ACP Council of Ministers held in Brussels (Belgium) from 28 to 29 September 1998,

F. considering that the ACP Sugar Protocol is an integral part of the EU regime and the ACP quantities are bound in the EU's WTO commitments,

G. noting that the ACP sugar producing States, with few exceptions, are net food importing, developing, least-developed, land-locked or island states with peculiar economic and social difficulties which rely on sugar revenue for their socio-economic development,

H. noting also that ACP countries have been using the earnings from exports to the EU in their rationalisation programmes to improve efficiency, increase productivity, optimise the use of by-products and generally enhance their level of competitiveness,

I. recognising the multi-functional nature of the sugar industry to ACP supplying States, its role as a foreign exchange earner and major employer and its contribution to environmental protection and rural development,

J. reaffirming that the ACP supplying States are committed to the rationalisation of their industries to become globally competitive, but recognise that there is a need to ensure that the peculiar situation of developing countries is taken fully into account in the globalisation process,

1. Calls on the European Union to:

(i) to ensure that the guarantees enshrined in the ACP/EU Protocol on Sugar are not adversely affected by the millennium round of negotiations;

(ii) ensure that the WTO commitment to secure a share in the growth of international trade for developing countries commensurate with the needs of their economic development is fully honoured, and that the guarantees of the Sugar Protocol are not eroded by unbridled trade liberalisation;

(iii) ensure that every effort is made to defend and maintain the preferential trading agreement and hence honour the commitment given to the ACP under the Sugar Protocol;

(iv) acknowledge the role of ACP sugar industry in the EU refining industry and recognise the mutual benefit to all parties concerned derived from the preferential trading under the Protocol and Special Preferential Sugar Agreement;

(v) recognise the efforts made by the ACP at rationalisation, as highlighted in the annual memorandum on economic factors, and ensure that the price offered for ACP sugar takes fully into account all relevant factors, and that it contributes positively to the viability of ACP industries;

(vi) acknowledge the multi-functional nature of ACP sugar industries, in particular their contribution to environmental protection, rural development, employment, foreign exchange earnings and the general socio-economic development in ACP supplying States;

2. Instructs its Co-President to forward this resolution to the ACP-EU Council and the Commission.

(1) Adopted by the ACP-EU Joint Assembly on 1 April 1999 in Strasbourg (France).