WRITTEN QUESTION P-2688/99

by Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(11 January 2000)

Subject: Preferential agreements between the EU and ACP States and their acceptability to the WTO

According to an Agence Europe report published on 1 December 1999, the new WTO Deputy Director-General, Miguel Rodríguez Mendoza, has contradicted the Commission's assertion that a Lomé waiver will have no prospect of success unless the ACP States agree to the regional economic partnership agreements (REPAs) being proposed by the EU.

Mr Rodríguez Mendoza was quoted as saying that the WTO certainly permitted the trade preferences that industrialised nations granted to developing countries and he strongly denied that there was a single WTO rule requiring preferential agreements to be converted into free trade agreements.

Can the Commission comment on the above statements by the WTO Deputy Director-General and also say:

1. whether it will make the necessary adjustments to its position in the negotiations on a successor convention to Lomé and cease to insist on regional free trade agreements;

2. bearing in mind that Lomé Convention is due to expire on 28 February 2000, whether it has already applied to the WTO for renewal of the special exemption and if not, why not;

3. whether and to what extent it has been conducting a dialogue in previous years with the appropriate WTO bodies on the post-Lomé negotiations?

Answer given by Mr Nielson on behalf of the Commission

(3 February 2000)

The statement attributed to the Deputy Director-general of the World trade organisation (WTO) is misleading.

There is, indeed, no single WTO rule requiring preferential agreements to be converted into free trade agreements. In this, the statement is correct and the Commission has never claimed the opposite.

It is also a matter of fact that WTO rules permit industrialised countries to grant trade preferences to developing countries. In this, the statement is also correct, but it needs to be added that this is only the case as long as these trade preferences do not discriminate between developing countries having the same level of social and economic development. The present, non-reciprocal trade preferences granted to the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP) which introduce a discrimination between developing countries only on a geographical basis, are incompatible with the provisions of the WTO. They can only be maintained if a waiver is granted.

In this context, there has been agreement since the Dakar Community-ACP ministerial meeting in March 1999 that the present, non-reciprocal trade preferences cannot be maintained indefinitely. A waiver will therefore be requested to continue the existing preferences. At the end of that period, new trade arrangements will be introduced which should be fully compatible with the provisions of the WTO. The decision was also taken at the December 1999 Community-ACP ministerial meeting to prepare a formal request for a waiver which will be submitted to the WTO as soon as the text describing the proposed trade regime to be in force during the preparatory period has been finalised in the coming weeks.

The Commission has always held the view that a clear and unconditional commitment to introduce, after a preparatory period, a new WTO-compatible trade arrangement, would considerably increase the chances of obtaining a new waiver. This view has been confirmed in numerous contacts which the Commission has had during the negotiations with the WTO secretariat. The statement attributed to the Deputy Director general of the WTO does not contradict this view.