A C c oto p nou ­d U aily e PASCIB PLATE-FORMEDES ACTEURS DE LA SOCIETE CIVILE AU BENIN Information and Analysis on the launching of ACP-EU Economic Patnership Agreement in West Africa- N°001 of october 6th, 2003 LAUNCHING OF NEGOTIATIONS ON ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS West Africa in the Cotonou dynamics The West African countries of the Africa Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group and the European Union officially launch the regional negotiations to implement the Economic Partnership Agreement as agreed under the Cotonou Agreement, signed on 23 June 2000. With this ceremony, the integration process of W est Africa ACP into the globalisation dynamics has entered into its decisive phase. Since the general launching of negotiations on the trade part of the Cotonou Agreement(phase I) on September 27, 2002 in the Belgian capital, several meetings have allowed to pave the way in this respect. ECOWAS as a negotiation framework On June 23rd, 2000, the European Union and 77 States in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific signed a new cooperation agree­ment governing their aid and trade relations. It is named" Coto­nou Agreement". Concluded for 20 years, with a 5-year review clause, it succeeded to the Lomé Convention whose fifth version ended in February 2000. As far as trade is concerned, the Coto­nou Agreement embarked upon a radical reform which will have a considerable impact on the ACP countries: it consists on putting in place,right from 2008, economic partnership agreement(EPA) between Europe and ACP countries grouped in regional blocks. On 25 and 26 September 2002, the ACP ministerial council held an extraordinary session in Brussels. The meeting prepared the launching of the first phase of the Economic Partnership Agree­ments(EPA) negotiations. The preparation of negotiations at ministerial level is ensured by ambassadors, including those in charge of WTO-related issues in Europe. The technical preparation was performed by the ACP Secretariat with the contribution of experts consultative group, experts representing regional economic integration organizations, national experts and partner institutions' officials. The first ACP­EU EPA negotiations meeting at ambassadoriallevelwas held on W ednesday 30th October, 2002 at the ACP Head Office in Brussels. Such various meetings among experts enabled to level differences and ended up in the determination or identification of negotiation blocks and actors at regional level. In the western part of the continent, leaders agreed upon the Economic C o m munityof W estAfrican States(ECOW AS) as the negotiation block. Regarding the state actors in ECOW AS countries,various experiences in the involvement of civil society organisations emerged and are being developed in each member State (settlement of focal points, creation of non state actors platform, establishment of an inter institutional commission bringing together State and civil society…). In the dynamics of globalisation The ACP-EU ministerial meeting of September 2002 agreed on the establishment, at ambassadorial level, of an ACP-EU Steering Committee on issues relating to the W orld Trade Organisation (WTO). For the AC P,thisdevice would serve as consultation and coordination mechanism for ambassadors in post in Brussels and Geneva, both for W TO and EPA negotiations. Obviously, one is active and bustlingquietly,but surely, about getting ACP countries follow the pace of globalisation. Early discrepancies During the first EPA negotiation meeting on 30 October 2002, discrepancies came out over the nature of the first phase of negotiations. The ACP delegation, conducted by the Chairman of the ACP Ambassadors Committee, H.E. Sutiawan GUNESSEE, suggested seven questions to be considered for the first phase: 1- Market access- including, inter alia, original rules, trade facilitation, especially customs procedures, non tariff hindrances to trade, including standardisation and certification, preventive measures, product cover and transition periods; 2- Agriculture and fishing, especially commodities and protocols relating to commodities, heath and plant heath measures; 3- Service trade- inter alia, implementation, enterprises, dis­tribution, financial services, tourism, cultural service, construction and engineering services relating to trade, air and maritime trans­port, information and communication technologies; 4- Trade-related issues- including, among others, competition policies, intellectual property rights, trade and environment; 5- Development cooperation issues, namely constraints relating to offer,transport and communication infrastructures, energy, promotion programmes and investment protection, technologies, capacity building, financial support and other measures aiming at bearing structural adjustment costs; 6- Legal issues- they are, among others, dispute settlement, Agreements legal status, institutional issues and compatibility with WTO rules. 7- Besides, ACP specified that some transversal issues like special preferential and differential treatment, health and phytosanitary measures and preventive measures, could be dealt with by more than one negotiation group. The EU delegation, led by Mr KarlFALKENBERG, Director at the General Trade Department of the European Commission..., proposed four negotiation themes: access to market, rules relating to trade and investments, procedural issues as well as development issue which should be considered as a transversal issue.