EU Warned That ACP Countries Will Lose Preferential Treatment.

In June 23, 2000, the 77 member states of Group of African, Caribbean and Pacific Region Countries (referred to as ACP countries) and 15 European Union countries (now expanded to 27), signed the partnership agreement between the countries of the ACP region and the European Union and its member states (that is, Cotonou Agreement of the European Union and its member states).

The Cotonou agreement is valid for 20 years, revised every 5 years, the first 8 years are the pitional period, and the latter 12 years are the implementation period.

The main contents include comprehensive political dialogue between the two sides, expanding economic and trade cooperation, and achieving trade liberalization.

During the 8 year pition period, the European Union provided 13 billion 500 million euros of assistance to ACP countries, and 97% of ACP products could enter the EU market tax-free.

After the signing of the Cotonou agreement, some Latin American countries expressed their dissatisfaction with the EU's special "care" to ACP countries and resorted to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

WTO ruled in 2001 that the ACP countries and the EU should cancel the unilateral side by the end of 2007.

In 2002, the European Union began negotiations with ACP countries on EPA.

However, because the conditions proposed by the European Union in the new round of trade negotiations have been difficult to accept by many ACP countries, the long years of negotiations have dragged on, and some ACP countries have not yet completed the EPA agreement with the European Union. Therefore, the European Union issued an ultimatum.

The European Union has recently begun to withdraw the ACP country's market opening offer, but said such restrictions would only have a slight impact on the export of ACP products to the European Union.

The opening rules of the market give 36 ACP countries the EU's quota free zero tariff preferential treatment, which is regarded as a pitional solution after the expiration of the effectiveness of the Condor agreement.

The EU executive committee said that this open rule is only a temporary solution and can not be permanently applied; the relevant ACP countries should have enough time to sign EPA with the European Union.

Of the 36 zero tariff preferential treatment ACP countries, 18 countries are --14 Caribbean countries, as well as Madagascar, the model, the Seychelles and Babu New Guinea, and have already negotiated with the EU the EPA preliminary agreement, which will continue to apply.

The other 18 countries must now choose whether to establish trade partnership with the EU with the signing of the existing EPA or the conclusion of the new regional agreement.

If the 18 countries decide not to sign the EPA agreement, 9 of the low development countries: plundi, Komolo, Haiti, rasto, Mo3, Beek, Randa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia can still enjoy the quota zero tariff concessions based on the EU's low development countries, except Everything But Arms Scheme (EBA).

The other 7 low income or middle and low income countries: Cameroon, Fiji, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, sivaszran and Zimbabwe can enjoy tariff preferences from the Generalized System of Preferences regime (GSP), which offers all the developing countries' unilateral preferential benefits.

According to the recommendation of the Executive Committee, the European Union decided to carry out the improvement and revision of the new GSP rules in accordance with the existing GSP rules, so as to realize the effectiveness of the new rules. Therefore, in May 11th this year, the EU announced in the communiqu 512/2011 No. No.L145/28 that during the period of training the new GSP rules, the effective period of the current GSP will be extended from December 31, 2011 to December 31, 2013.

In view of this, the time limit for revising the market opening rules of the aforementioned ACP countries is in line with the date of implementation of the new version of GSP.

The remaining Botswana and two Namibia countries are currently middle and upper income countries. If they maintain the same economic status for three consecutive years, they will no longer apply preferential treatment according to the revised rules proposed by the new version of GSP.

For the first time, the EU issued a definitive deadline for talks, but it is hard to say that such ACP countries' actions are not expected.

There is public opinion that the current state of the ACP countries that have signed the EPA with the EU, and the developing countries that have not won the zero tariff preferential treatment of the EU market, are very unfair.

According to the EU announcement, this move is not a new plan, nor a change of basic policy, but a strategy of the Executive Committee's foundation. Based on the current WTO and EU laws, it builds the foundation for the stable and lawful trade relations between ACP countries and the EU, so as to balance the fairness of other ACP countries and even non ACP developing countries.