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International Agreements.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 February 2010

Wednesday, 3 February 2010

Questions (220)

George Lee

Question:

285 Deputy George Lee asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs his plans to allow flexibility to African, Caribbean and Pacific countries in the negotiation of economic partnership agreements, in view of the fact that he called on the European Commission to show such flexibility in December 2007; the factors that required the Houses of the Oireachtas to approve the interim agreements which were signed with Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana at the end of 2008 before the national parliaments of these countries had approved the agreements; if the flexibility, to which he had referred, could have been shown by waiting for the relevant national parliaments to approve the agreements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5489/10]

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Written answers

Since 2002, the EU has been negotiating Economic Partnership Agreements, which combine both trade and development provisions, with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of States. The Agreements are being negotiated by the European Commission, on behalf of the European Community and the Member States. These negotiations are necessary as a result of a ruling by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that the unilateral trade preferences which the EU had granted to the ACP countries established unfair discrimination between developing countries. The mandate for the negotiations comes from the legally-binding Cotonou Agreement between the EU and the ACP States in 2000. Their central objective is the reduction, and eventual eradication of poverty, consistent with the objectives of sustainable development and the gradual integration of the ACP countries into the world economy.

It had been hoped that comprehensive Agreements with the six regional groupings of the ACP States could be concluded by the end of 2007, the deadline set by the WTO. However, following a process of protracted and difficult negotiation, only one of the ACP regional groups, representing Caribbean States, was in a position to initial a full Agreement before the deadline. In order to avoid trade disruption, interim Agreements were agreed and initialled with 21 other ACP States, including Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, in December 2007. These interim Agreements provide for full duty and quota-free market access on the EU side and a flexible and asymmetric trade liberalisation schedule on the ACP side.

In the second half of 2008, the Council of Ministers approved the three interim Agreements with Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana for signature on behalf of the European Community. In line with its own national procedures, Côte d'Ivoire signed the Interim Agreement, with the European Commission, on 26 November 2008 and Cameroon signed its Interim Agreement on 15 January 2009. Ghana has not yet signed its Interim Agreement. The EU Member States also sign the Agreements, in line with their national procedures. In Ireland's case, Article 29.5.2 of the Constitution provides that the State shall not be bound by any international agreement involving a charge upon public funds unless the terms of the agreement shall have been approved by Dáil Éireann. The Office of the Attorney General advised that, because the interim Agreements must be provisionally applied by both the European Community and the Member States, Dáil approval was necessary before the State could sign them. The Dáil approved the terms of the interim Agreements on 18 December 2008, and they were signed on behalf of Ireland on the same day.

The process of negotiating comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements is continuing. Ireland has worked consistently, in cooperation with other EU partners, to ensure that the final Agreements strongly support the development needs of the ACP countries, and specifically their poverty reduction programmes. At meetings of EU Development Ministers, I have stressed the importance of maintaining a negotiating approach which would, for example, allow for application of the trade flexibility permissible under WTO law. We will continue to work with our EU partners, and with partner countries in the developing world, to ensure that the negotiations being led by the European Commission serve to strengthen the EU's partnership with the ACP States.

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