asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the steps the EEC has taken to review and extend the Arusha and Yaoundé Conventions.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Arusha and Yaoundé Conventions.
9.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose, in view of the lengthy nature of the reply, to circulate it with the Official Report.
Protocol 22 of the Treaty of Accession, concerning relations between the Community on the one hand and the Associated African and Malagasy States (AAMS) and the independent developing Commonwealth countries in Africa, the Indian and Pacific Oceans and the Caribbean on the other, envisaged that the countries which participated in the Arusha Convention and certain Commonwealth countries listed in Annex VI of the Treaty of Accession should be offered the possibility of ordering their relations with the Community according to three formulae; namely:
1. participation in the new Convention to follow the Yaoundé Convention then in operation,
2. the conclusion of a convention of the Arusha type, involving reciprocal rights and obligations, particularly in the field of trade, or
3. the conclusion of trade agreements.
In the event, negotiations on the first model were begun in Brussels on 25th July, 1973 and invitations to participate in them were subsequently accepted by a number of additional countries, namely, Bahamas, Grenada, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Liberia, Sudan, Guinea, and the new state of Guinea-Bissau. In all, 46 developing nations, including all of black Africa, participated in the discussions on a single model of economic relations with the Community. It is, perhaps, worth noting the remarkable unity which these countries, known collectively as the ACP States, displayed during these negotiations. Never before have so many States had to collaborate on each side in working out an agreement of such magnitude and technical complexity and of such vital interest to the economies of all the parties involved.
These negotiations ended on 1st February, 1975, in agreement on all the texts of a new convention—the "ACP/EEC Convention of Lomé", so called after the capital of the West African state of Togo, where the agreement is due to be signed on 28th February, 1975. The texts are to be recommended by the ACP negotiators for the approval of the Council of Ministers of the ACP, meeting in Accra on 11th and 12th February. The new convention will apply for a period of five years from its entry into force, following the completion of the necessary ratification procedures. In the meantime transitional arrangements will be made to facilitate trade relations.
It is of interest to note that it was agreed during the negotiations that the amount fixed for financial co-operation would be calculated over a five-year period commencing with the date of signature rather than a five-year period from the date of entry into force. This agreement constitutes a substantial improvement in the Community's offer of actual financial aid over the next five years and thereby a substantial further concession to the ACP states.
The new convention covers trade; stabilisation of export receipts; industrial co-operation; financial and technical co-operation; provisions relating to establishment, services, payments and capital movements; institutions and general and final provisions.
In the case of trade, the Community decided not to seek reciprocal concessions in return for free access to the Community market for products originating in the ACP. Free access was granted to the ACP countries for all their industrial exports to the Community and for 96 per cent of their agricultural exports.
The new convention contains a number of novel features going beyond the sort of relationship which existed under the Yaoundé and Arusha Conventions. Perhaps the most significant is the scheme, in the trade sector, for stabilisation of important export receipts of the ACP states, giving them a guaranteed price level for such primary products as tea, sugar, coffee, sisal, iron ore, cotton, palm products and raw hides and skins.
There is also an important advance on the old type of arrangement in the Convention's Chapter on "Industrial Co-operation", which aims to promote the development and diversification of industry in the ACP states through the transfer of technology, through market promotion and through investment by Community firms in the ACP states.
The financial co-operation envisaged by the new convention amounts to a total of 3,390 million units of account, of which 3,000 mua will form the new European Development Fund, 2,100 mua in grants, 430 mua in special loans, 95 mua in risk capital and 375 mua for stabilising export earnings, and 390 mua will come from the European Investment Bank.
These significant features distinguish the ACP/EEC Convention of Lomé from its predecessors and mark a new type of co-operation between nations of the developing and the industrialised worlds.