Transcript EU ACP Trade negotiations, Rural economy and livelihood of

EU Trade Policies: the
blueprint
Karin Ulmer, Aprodev
(Association of WCC-related Development Organisations in Europe)
Presentation for UNCTAD Conference Delhi, 27 Feb 2008
EU trade policy: the blueprint
Global Europe and its development implications
Equity in trade negotiations
Global Europe
Global Trends:
• Proliferation of FTA
• High asymmetry
• Lack of governance and democracy
Global Europe
• Choice for aggressive competition
• Lock in EU domestic policy reforms and promote deregulation
• Cohesive EU foreign economic policy: „soft“ trade power
• New role for buisness in trade-rule making
Objectives:
• Market opening in trade and services
• Competing for geopolitical influence
• Tackling import regimes and behind the border obstacles (NTB, TBT)
• Introduce new issues, and stronger rules and standards
Trade policies (macro)
Market access
•
Push for full and fast tariff elimination
•
TDM fall short to offer effective protection (infant
industry, SSM)
•
Rules of orgin further fragmentate production
•
Subsidies & countervailing measures not addressed
•
Introduction of MFN clause is detrimental to SouthSouth trade
Service sector
•
Priority to market access over sequencing
regulation & regulatory cooperation and reform
•
Should have sound competition frameworks in place
to prevent private monopolicies
•
Lack of safeguards
•
Limited offer on Mode IV
Trade related issues:Tackling the whole operational
environment incl.services and supply chains
Competition:
•
Lack of proper regulations lead to corrupt bidding
process private monopolicies
•
Capacity and leverage to investigate and enforce
rules
Investment rules
•
Will attract FDI is questionable assumption
•
manage investment (performance
requirements/local content)
•
Balance of rights & obligations for investor and
home country
•
Investment promotion
•
Enforcing good investor behavior
Government Procurement
•
Significant share of GDP: get policies right
•
Little evidence on what kind of GP is needed
Intellectual Property Rights
•
Effective IPR to promote health, industrial
devevelopment, food security and education
•
IPR can stifle or promote innovation (copy right)
•
EU focus on enforcement provision rather than
access to technologies & information
•
EU seeks control over IT for own competitiveness
•
EU to cooperate in WIPO to address development
deficiencies
Global Europe and its development implications
Precondition to reap development potentials
• Provide evidence on development benefit
• Alignment with national development strategies
• Guidance for substantial shift to achieve best outcomes for poor producers/traders
• Imperative positive development outcomes for non-WTO compulsion issues
• Non-negotiable EU template is a non starter
• Arbitration against objective agreed criteria (development benchmarks)
Development package
• No lock in of of donor driven policy reforms
• Non-conditional, non-punitive aid packages, de-link from signing FTA
State of art
• Reference to development in overarching objectives but no overriding legal power
• Gender dimension is absent
• Transparency and participatory decision-making remains unfulfilled
• “Become modern or get out!” Think big. Be big. Play big.
Chicken campaign results 2005
Popular advocacy - Political participation
source: www.acdic.net
Imports:
• Fixed duty increased (1450
CFA)
• Ad valorem maintained (20%)
• VAT added 17.5%
• Veteranary tax added 1.75%
• Quota decreased and
temporarily stopped
Local markets:
• Domestic production
increased: (demand of 13 500 day
chicken in 2004 to 32 500 in 2005)
• 75% of consumers informed
• Demand for imported chicken
decreased
• Private investment in domestic
poultry sector
• Ongoing monitoring and public
pressure
• Petition of appr. 100 national
parliamentarians to support
domestic poultry sector
• Establishment of poultry
farming representation
Poultry sector specific trade policy options
Criteria: Sector with disproportionate gender impact
• Special/sensitive product: maintain flexibility for mix of policy
measures (risk: standstill clause)
• Special Safeguards Measures: TDM too burdensome
• Development package: supply side capacity
• Financial services (assets, bankruptcy)
• “Farm to fork” : EU food safety regulations and responsibilty
• Monitoring: sector specific observatory
• Review of trade provisions
Social & Economic
policies (micro)
Trade policies (macro)
Trade related issues:Tackling the whole operational environment
incl.services and supply chains
Competition:
•
Lack of proper regulations lead to corrupt bidding process
private monopolicies
•
Capacity and leverage to investigate and enforce rules
Investment rules
•
Will attract FDI is questionable assumption
•
manage investment (performance requirements/local content)
•
Balance of rights & obligations for investor and home country
•
Investment promotion
•
Enforcing good investor behavior
Government Procurement
•
Significant share of GDP: get policies right
•
Little evidence on what kind of GP is needed
Intellectual Property Rights
•
Effective IPR to promote health, industrial devevelopment, food
security and education
•
IPR can stifle or promote innovation (copy right)
•
EU focus on enforcement provision rather than access to
technologies & information
•
EU seeks control over IT for own competitiveness
•
EU to cooperate in WIPO to address development deficiencies
Think small first
•
Slaughterhouses:
Decentralised women
cooperatives providing
slaughter services direct
at market (smart not high
tech)
•
Financial services for
women/SME in local
markets
Support informal netwoks
•
•
Invest in local market
facilities and infrastructure
•
Traditional knowledge:
domestic breeding &
varieties (risk:birdflue)
Social & Economic
policies (micro)
Trade policies (macro)
Market access
•
Push for full and fast tariff elimination
•
TDM fall short to offer effective protection
(infant industry, SSM)
•
Rules of orgin further fragmentate
production
•
Subsidies & countervailing measures not
addressed
•
Introduction of MFN clause is detrimental to
South-South trade
Service sector
•
Priority to market access over sequencing
regulation & regulatory cooperation and
reform
•
Should have sound competition frameworks
in place to prevent private monopolicies
•
Lack of safeguards
•
Limited offer on Mode IV
Think small first
“The difficulty is that gender issues are very
silent as they are hidden away at the micro
level, whereas trade issues and volumes and
figures are (made) very visible at the macro
level.”Tilder Kumiichi
•
•
•
•
What kind of growth? Export orientated
agriculture (agro-buisnesss) or protection
of import competing agriculture
Feminisation of poverty: Poultry farming,
however small, can effectively improve
livelihoods (economic benefits, social
advantages, cultural and traditional
dimension)
Dynamic gender relations: commercial
poultry farming and backyard poultry
farming; entry point to enterpreneurship
Potential for food processing industry.
Illustration: Gender benchmark on special and
sensitive products (flexibility for protection)
•
•
•
•
In addition to WTO criteria for special products of poverty alleviation, employment,
and food security, a fourth criteria on disproportionate gender impact could be
added.
Gender criteria could be defined as follows: if a sector is particularly critical to the
livelihood of poor women and liberalisation would jeopardise this function, then the
sector is eligible for nomination as sensitive until the affected women can compete or
find other comparable income opportunities. Alternatively, if a sector is liberalised and
found to have a disproportionate impact on poor women, then liberalisation schedules
can be halted or reversed.
A process could be designed whereby:
a)
Each DC country lists the product/sector that is gender sensitive on the basis
of objective and agreed criteria, such as women’s employment, women’s share
of credits, decision-making, and autonomy in entrepreneurial activities.
b)
The number of gender sensitive products may possibly be limited by a
maximum number per country
c)
Gender sensitive products would also be declared special products.
d)
Safeguard measures can be evoked for gender sensitive products.
Illustration: Equity benchmark
(positive discrimination)
•
Equity benchmarks should allow and promote positive measures under aid
for trade, development support, investment, and/or mitigating and
accompanying stipulations that are designed in a way that explicitly address
gender specific measures. These include for example, safety nets,
provisions that promote women entrepreneurs, regulations that encourage
supply capacity building, and control over productive resources.
Benchmarking Development in trade negotiations
Byron & Lewis (2007) Formulating sustainable development benchmarks for a EU –Cariforum EPA:
Caribbean perspectives, published by University of West Indies, Aprodev and ICTSD
McCarthy, Kruger & Fourie (2007) Benchmarking EPA negotiations between EU and SADC
published by Tralac, Aprodev and ICTSD