Ethiopia and EPA Negotiation 2008 - FES Ethiopia

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5.8 Precedence that the Interim EPAs set to the legality of other preferences The interim EPAs have a very serious albeit a long term implications for other preferences and in particular the current 39 beneficiaries of AGOA. The main argument of the European Union against the continuation of the non-reciprocal preference under Cotonou was that it was consistent with WTO rules prohibiting preferential schemes that were geographically limited and that included non- LDCs. This situation is similar to AGOA which without any WTO rule change, could be challenged. In addition, US exporters will certainly start complaining about the continued extension of unilateral preferences to countries which are discriminating against their exports. Until now, the US business community has provided support to AGOA. When they see preference being extended to the European Union, they might also start requesting reciprocity. 5.9 Development Cooperation Development cooperation is the central objective in Ethiopia’s negotiation with the European Union. That has been the positions of nearly all countries in the ESA configuration. Given the preference that is available under EBA, development assistance is the single most important incentive for LDCs to continue in the negotiation. Despite that, development cooperation provisions, both financial and non-financial, are hardly developed and often absent in the Interim EPAs. EAC has one article that states broad areas of cooperation - such as sustained growth, regional integration, fostering structural transformation, addressing supply capacity, etc. The EAC also spells out funding will come from the EDF, Aid for Trade and the EU General Budget. Perhaps because of the limited development cooperation clause, the ESA text takes development cooperation as one of the issues that will be negotiated under the rendezvous clause. ESA has 16 dedicated articles on specific development cooperation aspects. There is very little in terms of attention being paid to development needs in the EAC text. Development chapter in the ESA text includes a desire to support a matrix of regional needs (infrastructure, upgrading productive sectors, regional integration, trade policy & regulation, adjustment costs), possibly via a regional fund. The ESA text has little of financial value and is not considered to be as one item in the inbuilt agenda that will be negotiated under the rendezvous clause. Compared to the EAC text, the areas covered make it more comprehensive. No binding link is made between the implementation of trade reforms and financial assistance from EU. The details of development cooperation 24 | P a g e
instruments remain to be negotiated at a later stage. Other instruments cited such as EDF are not linked in a binding manner to the interim agreements. In fact development assistance explicitly excluded from the remit of the interim EPA dispute settlement mechanism. In the context of the ongoing comprehensive EPA negotiation, the EC has reacted on the proposal submitted by the ESA on the subjects of development cooperation strategy, development benchmarks, and the costed development matrix. On the issue of development cooperation strategy, the EC stressed that that the most binding Strategy would be the Regional Strategy Paper/Regional Indicative Programme (RSP/RIP) that is being finalized with the ESA region under the 10 th EDF (€645 million). According to EC, it is “in this strategy that the ESA-IO Regional Organisations (ROs) involved (COMESA, EAC, IGAD and IOC) articulate their own strategies for Regional Integration and where the EC responds.” The RIP, once signed, will constitute the EC financial commitment to support the regional integration strategies of the four Regional Organisations for which EPA implementation is one of the elements, but not the only one. The EC is also highly skeptical of the concept of development benchmarks and recommended re-thinking completely what is to be measured with these DBs, limiting the number of indicators to key ones that can directly be connected with EPA implementation. With regard to the costed development matrix of the ESA region amounting more than €8 billion, the EU said it recognises that it is important for the region to come up with an indication of the resources needed, especially when other development partners (in addition to EC with its EDF funds) would be called to support the ESA regional integration strategies. However, the EC wants to know the what criteria that has been used for the selection of projects at national level; the process of ‘filtering’ that has been applied by the ESA negotiators to screen the various submissions made by individual member countries, to ensure that projects listed have a genuine regional nature and the method by which financial gaps have been calculated. Given the polarized position of the parties on development cooperation, the issue seems to be one of the sticking point of the negotiation. 25 | P a g e
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Page 3 and 4: References ........................
Page 5 and 6: Unilateral preference programs not
Page 7 and 8: Cotonou Agreement. The Cotonou Agre
Page 9 and 10: egional trade arrangements envisage
Page 11 and 12: 4. Content of the Interim EPAs As o
Page 13 and 14: country inputs in such key areas as
Page 15 and 16: African LDCs signed the Interim EPA
Page 17 and 18: the policy space of developing coun
Page 19 and 20: have the audacity to claim otherwis
Page 21 and 22: sale for export between the parties
Page 23: goods involved in the fraud and imp
Page 27 and 28: 6.1 Initialling/ acceding to Develo
Page 29 and 30: The EBA regime provides duty free a
Page 31 and 32: etween the EU and Ethiopia as these
Page 33 and 34: cost. It should also be noted that
Page 35 and 36: different documentation requirement
Page 37 and 38: negotiation on the Full EPA with EC
Page 39 and 40: The final outcome of the EAC-EC EPA
Page 41 and 42: and eastern African countries. Harm
Page 43 and 44: 7. Conclusion: Key Issues Ahead The
Page 45 and 46: importance of technical cooperation
Page 47 and 48: the framework rules on procurement
Page 49 and 50: addressed since most of the CARIFOR
Page 51 and 52: References 1. Agritrade, EPA Negoti
Page 53 and 54: 19. Roberta Piermartini, The Role o
Page 55 and 56: Scope of Application Article 6 Clas
Page 57 and 58: Relations between this Agreement an

Ethiopia and EPA Negotiation 2008 - FES Ethiopia

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