EPAs and Trade Related Areas Civil Society Dialogue Economic Partnership Agreements with African, Carribean, and Pacific Countries EPAs and Trade Related Areas DG Trade, European Commission Brussels, 18 May 2005
Selected issues by civil-society representatives EC brings in Singapore issues through the back-door and will reduce ACP policy-space ACP capacities not sufficient to negotiate trade-related issues EC approach is not transparent Access to medicines: IPR consensus before Cancun will be offset by bilateral agreements (example US agreements)
Main objective is to develop trade-related issues in a S-S context EC key points Main objective is to develop trade-related issues in a S-S context Regional preference (eg. Gov. procurement or investment) including vis-à-vis EU is no problem S-N dimension can only be defined when the S-S approach is agreed; example services
EC key points (continued) Capacity constraints are key-feature of EPAs - is being tackled through regional task forces; capacity is a key requirement for implementation Transparency, including on trade-related issues, to be improved - regional level, all-ACP, in Europe Access to medicines: no plans to go beyond TRIPS
Questions for further discussion How to tackle capacity constraints more meaningfully - relationship national and regional level? How to enhance transparency How to enter into more concrete discussions? progress in regional talks will help