An Integrated, Prosperous and Peaceful Africa.

Top Slides

2025 Theme of the Year: "2025 Year of Reparations: Justice for Africans & People of African Descent through Reparations.

Department Key

Declaration on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)

8th ORDINARY SESSION OF THE CONFERENCE
OF AU MINISTERS OF TRADE
21ST – 25TH OCTOBER 2013
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

AU/TI/TD/CAMoT-8/EPA.DECL/FINAL
Original: English

DECLARATION ON THE ECONOMIC
PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS (EPAs)

DECLARATION ON EPAs

We, the Ministers of Trade of the Member States of the African Union, meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 24th-25th October 2013 in our Eighth Ordinary Session ;

RECALLING the objectives for Economic Partnership Agreement (EPAs) are the achievement of sustainable development of African countries, their smooth and gradual integration in the world economy and the eradication of poverty;

TAKING NOTE of the conclusions of the High-Level Meeting between the African Union Commission (AUC) and the European Commission (EC) held in Brussels, Belgium, on 3 July 2013, particularly the need for a political decision to resolve the contentious issues in EPA Negotiations;

FURTHER TAKING NOTE of the Report of the African Union/Regional Economic Communities (AU-RECs) Coordination Meetings on the EPA negotiations held in Libreville, Gabon, and Brussels, Belgium, respectively on 24-25 July 2013 and 4-5 October 2013;

REAFFIRMING that EPAs should be development-oriented instruments and should not undermine Africa’s economic integration and ensure meaningful market access and policy space;

HAVING RECOGNISED that EPA is supposed to be a WTO compatible agreement and need not include WTO plus Commitments

HAVING adequately assessed the state of play of EPAs Negotiations in Africa after a long period of negotiation, reemphasize the need to strengthen political dialogue between the EU and Africa at the appropriate level with a view to finding solutions to Africa’s common concerns on EPAs;

RECALLING the past Declarations of AU Ministers of Trade on EPAs;

BEING AWARE of the challenges faced by some African Union Member States that are Implementing Interim EPAs;

RECALLING the latest call for High Level Dialogue on EPAs made by the ACP Summit held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in 2012;

FURTHER RECALLING the Decision AU/MIN/CAMRMRD/4(I) of the 1st Ordinary Session the AU Conference of Ministers responsible for Mineral Resources Development 13-17 October 2008; Calling-on AU Member States to work together to ensure that international agreements that they enter into enhance rather than undermine Africa’s policy space for integrating mineral resources development into their economies and in this regard, Urging them and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) to ensure that the ongoing Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations do not limit this space;
BEARING IN MIND the upcoming Fourth Africa-EU Summit scheduled to take place in Brussels, Belgium, on 2-3 April 2014;

Hereby:

1. REAFFIRM our commitment to continue the negotiations in order to conclude an EPA that promotes the development of African countries and promotes regional and continental integration programmes;

2. EXPRESS OUR DISAPOINTMENT on the factthat after a decade of EPA negotiations, the process has not produced the desired results due to the lack of progress in resolving the differences between the parties on a number of contentious issues;

3. NOTE WITH CONCERN that the current situation of the EPA negotiations are further complicated by many factors such as the amendment to the EC Market Access Regulation 1528/2007 which withdraws some AU Member States from the benefits therein; the introduction of new issues in the EPA negotiations by the EU; the proliferation of EU regulations and legislations on non-tariff measures that serve as technical barriers to trade as well as the EU negotiations with third parties.

4. CALL ON the EU to demonstrate meaningful flexibility in its EPA negotiating demands particularly regarding contentious issues and not to use the withdrawal of regulation 1528/2007 to force countries to conclude EPAs that do not meet African development aspirations.

5. STRESS the need for accompanying measures including additional resources which allow the implementation of the commitments reached in the EPAs and also enable the African states to be competitive.

6. CALL UPON the EU to ensure that the EPA negotiations do not impose WTO Plus commitments on African Countries and that the outcome is WTO compatible.

7. STRESS the need to include the EPAs on the agenda of the Fourth Africa-EU Summit to end the current impasse in the EPA negotiations. We strongly believe that the Africa-EU Summit provides a good opportunity for Africa and Europe to engage in political dialogue at the highest level, and together find lasting solutions to the challenges in the EPA negotiations.

8. CALL UPONthe EU to work closely with the AU to ensure that the EPAs are prioritized at all the stages of preparation and be part of the Fourth Africa-EU Summit Agenda.

9. NOTE the Joint Matrix on the contentious issues in the EPA negotiations with proposals for their resolution and request Africa EPA negotiating regions to use it as a guide to harmonize their positions in the negotiations.. Re affirm the principle that the most favorable provision in any one EPA configuration would be extended to the others.

10. CALL UPON the AU Members states and all other relevant stakeholders, in particular, the RECs, AU EPA configurations, private sector, and civil society to work closely to ensure that unity, cohesion and solidarity are maintained and strengthened, in order to secure the best possible outcome in the EPA Negotiations.

11. CALL UPON the EU to agree to provisions on Rules of Origin and Cumulation across the various EPAs that support Africa’s integration objectives and promote intra-Africa trade;

12. URGE the EU to fully take into account our above fundamental concerns in this regard, in order to preserve and not undermine the current processes for economic integration in Africa.

13. EXPRESS deep concern that the EU Raw materials Initiative (RMI) will impact negatively on the extraction, beneficiation and trade in the natural resources of Africa and hinder achieving our industrialization and development goals. We are also concerned that this initiative is also reflected in EPA and could undermine the EPA negotiating process.

English

Addis Ababa Declaration on WTO Issues

CONFERENCE OF THE AFRICAN UNION
MINISTERS OF TRADE
24th - 25th October 2013
ADDIS-ABABA (ETHIOPIA)

AU/TI/TD/CAMoT-8/WTO/DECL.FINAL
Original: English

ADDIS ABABA DECLARATION ON WTO ISSUES

We, the Ministers of Trade of the Member States of the African Union meeting in Addis Ababa on the 24thand 25thOctober 2013 in the Eighth Ordinary Session of the AU Conference of the Ministers of Trade in order to review the progress made so far in the WTO negotiations in the lead up to the 9th Ministerial Conference of the WTO (MC9) from 3 to 6 December 2013, in Bali, Indonesia;

Taking note of the recent developments in the Multilateral Trading System and the changes which occurred at the leadership of the World Trade Organization(WTO), we pay tribute to the outgoing Director General of the WTO, Mr. Pascal Lamy, for his personal commitment and the sterling achievements during his tenure, and congratulate Ambassador Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo for his appointment as the 6th Director General of the WTO and commend his efforts in intensifying negotiations on the Bali package in pursuit of the mandate from the 8th WTO Ministerial Conference held in 2011. In this connection, we pledge our full support to the efforts of the Director General and further pledge our constructive role in ensuring that the negotiations leading to MC9 and beyond are successful;

Recalling the Doha Ministerial Declaration adopted by the 4th WTO Ministerial Conference in 2001 and the succeeding Ministerial Declarations and the July package which engendered the development agenda at the heart of the WTO`s work program;

Underscoring that the inception of the DDA negotiations and their focus on the development imperative was, amongst others, premised on the need to redress the imbalances inherent in the Uruguay Round Agreements;

Taking note of the ongoing consultations on Trade Facilitation, Agriculture and Development issues including LDCs issues which have been prioritized for delivery by the MC9;

Convinced that development should be the primary feature of the outcome of the MC9 on all the deliverables;

Aware that the MC9 is not an end in itself, but rather a crucial step in the process of defining a post Bali work program, particularly in areas of interest to African countries;

Cautious that the MC9 is key to preserving the credibility of the multilateral trading system in particular the rule making part of the WTO`s work;

Concerned by a growing trend by some key WTO Members to devolve concentration of their negotiating efforts away from Doha Development Agenda to the ever proliferating plurilateral agreements;

Further concerned that the devolution of concentration away from the DDA will erode modest progress made in integrating African countries into the multilateral trading system through trade related interventions particularly in pursuit of developmental objectives of Africa;

Aware of the positive contribution that the multilateral trading system could have on the African Union`s agenda on boosting Intra-Africa Trade and the realisation of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA);

Determined to work towards a balanced multilateral trading system in order to secure a meaningful share of growth of international trade;

Hereby,

1. Reaffirm the positions adopted in the Addis Ababa Declaration on WTO Issues of 2012;

A. WTO DECISIONS
2. Welcome the adoption of the General Council’s Decision of 25th July 2012 on Accession aimed at strengthening, streamlining and operationalising the 2002 LDCs Accession Guidelines, pursuant to the MC8 Decision, with principles and benchmarks in goods and services, and transparency in accession negotiations, Special & Differential Treatment (S&D) and transitional period and the need for enhanced technical assistance and capacity building to help acceding LDCs to complete their accession process, implement their commitments and to integrate them into the Multilateral Trading System. In this regard, we urge the full implementation of all aspects of the Decision by all WTO Members with due consideration to the specific circumstances and development objectives of acceding LDCs.

3. Further welcome a Decision on the extension of the transition period under article 66.1 of the TRIPS Agreement for least developed country members as adopted by the TRIPS Council on 11 June 2013;

B. GENERAL PRINCIPLES

4. Stress the importance of the DDA negotiations and re-commit to conclude them in accordance with the existing mandates and on the basis of progress achieved so far, according to the principles of Single Undertaking and Special and Differential Treatment;

5. Restate our continued call for a fair and balanced outcome of the DDA including in the context the Bali package, which must prioritize development as its main deliverable, preserve negotiated flexibilities beneficial to developing countries all anchored on the principles of inclusiveness, transparency and bottom-up approach;

6. Strongly caution against attempts to undermine the spirit of cooperation inherent in the multilateral approach to negotiating the DDA and call on Members of the WTO to exercise due restraint in engaging in plurilateral arrangements with the potential effect of undermining the DDA;

7. Strongly object to any attempt to link non-trade issues or add new issues to the DDA, before development issues such as agriculture (including cotton), LDC issues, S&D and implementation related concerns are satisfactorily addressed and the DDA is fully exhausted and successfully concluded;

8. Stress the importance of ensuring that the outstanding agenda items of the DDA particularly in the areas of agriculture, LDCs related flexibilities and S&D and Implementation issues are prioritized for the post Bali work program;
9. Reiterate that the DDA negotiations must be premised on development including incorporating adequate and targeted demand-driven financial and technical assistance and sustainable capacity building commitments as an integral part of S&D treatment under all areas of negotiations;

10. Underscore that agriculture remains central to Africa’s trade objectives at the WTO. We therefore emphasize the urgency and the need for addressing tariff peaks and tariff escalation in Agriculture, which inhibit amongst others, value addition and job creation and overall development in Africa. We reiterate our concerns regarding food security in the continent, and support efforts by Net-Food Importing Developing Countries (NFIDCs) in respect of Agriculture related rule-making at the WTO;

11. Reaffirm the integrality and importance of Special and Differential Treatment provisions in the WTO agreements and agree that in line with para 44 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration, all S&D provisions have to be reviewed with a view to strengthening them and making them more precise, effective and operational. We also attach equal and utmost importance to the expeditious completion of the S&D work programme set out in para 12.1 of the Decision on Implementation-Related Issues and Concerns endorsed in para 44 of the Ministerial Declaration;

12. Urge WTO Members to focus their attention on finding appropriate solutions in following up the commitment contained in para 12 of the Doha Declaration setting out Members’ resolve to negotiate all outstanding implementation issues as part of the Single Undertaking;

C. DEVELOPMENT AND LDCs ISSUES
13. Strongly object to current attempts to reduce the scope of the Monitoring Mechanism by limiting it to the review of implementation of S&D provisions including the erosion of the original intention of the Monitoring Mechanism.

14. Underscore that the Monitoring Mechanism shall propose appropriate actions, including to the General Council with a view to strengthening S&D provisions and have the mandate to regularly review the operation, utilization and effectiveness of S&D provisions,

15. We recall para 44 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration and express our concern on the lack of progress. We request the MC9 to provide further guidance on Development issues.

16. Call upon all the WTO members to fully commit themselves to the successful conclusion of the DDA as the only agenda for the WTO`s post Bali work program;

17. Recognise the proposals put forward by the LDC Group for the decision at the MC9 to advance a consolidated LDC package covering duty-free quota-free market access for LDC’s, simplified and flexible rules of origin for exports that qualify for duty-free, quota-free treatment, the operationalization of the LDC Services Waiver, and outstanding proposals on Cotton. In this regard, we urge the MC9 to reiterate its commitment toward the greater integration of the LDCs into the multilateral trading system and to take all possible steps towards realising this commitment in line with the respective mandates on LDCs issues.

18. Reaffirm the importance of cotton in the economy of the African Continent and call for a final solution of this matter on the basis of the achievements of the draft modalities on Agriculture of 6 December 2008 and call on all the WTO members for the timely resolution of this matter, pursuant to the Hong Kong mandate of December 2005.

19. We call for, on an interim basis, the adoption of a decision in Bali on the cotton issue, on the basis of proposals made by the C-4 on behalf African producers and exporters of cotton, without prejudice to the interests of African cotton producing countries.

D. TRADE FACILITATION

20. Reaffirm the importance of Trade Facilitation where our priorities include enhancing infrastructure and boosting productive and trade capacities, in addition to reducing transaction costs, barriers, incentivizing the undertaking of reforms and improvements to the customs regulatory systems as well as boosting intra-African trade;
21. Re-emphasize the positions held by the WTO African Group on Trade Facilitation specifically that it is not a self-balancing, win-win and a monolithic pillar in the DDA negotiations. We call for an internally balanced agreement, providing developing countries and LDCs with policy space and flexibility to adopt and implement commitments commensurate with their capacity to do so. We stress the need for achieving balance with other issues on the agenda of MC9, with a view towards fulfilling the development dimension of the Doha mandate. In this regard, the Bali outcome should result in substantive outcomes in the area of Agriculture and Development issues. Where a balance is not attained, negotiations on Trade Facilitation shall continue post-Bali, with a view to attaining a balanced agreement that fully and effectively reflects the principles of special and differential treatment under Annex D of the 2004 July Package;

22. Further re-emphasize that obligations and measures being negotiated under the Trade Facilitation consolidated text must include binding, effective and operational rules on Special and Differential Treatment. The obligation on developing countries and LDCs to implement the Trade Facilitation Agreement should be based upon their acquisition of capacity to implement, including through fulfilling, by developed countries, the obligation of delivering binding, new and long-term technical and financial assistance and capacity building necessary for African countries to achieve full implementation capacity. We underline the importance of the principles of self-designation and self-assessment under Section II of the Draft Trade Facilitation Agreement by developing countries and LDCs in determining the acquisition of capacity to implement;

E. ACCESSION

23. Reaffirm our full solidarity with all African countries in the process of accession into the WTO and urge all WTO members to facilitate and accelerate their accession in line with their level of development and the contours of the current WTO rules. In this regard, acceding African countries should not be required to give concessions beyond their level of development.

24. Invite WTO members to adopt measures and decisions aimed at simplifying accession procedures and enhancing the existing institutional mechanisms including the definition of transparent rules for the implementation of the provisions of Article XII of the Agreement establishing the WTO, with the objective of providing the opportunity to acceding African countries to express their views on the conduct of their accession

25. Urge WTO members, WTO Secretariat and relevant international organizations to provide technical assistance and capacity-building prior to and during and in the follow-up to the accession process in line with their needs and development priorities.

F. OTHER ISSUES

26. Take note of the holding of 8 to 10 July 2013 in Geneva of the Fourth Global Review of Aid for Trade and emphatically reiterate our desire to see this initiative usefully support the efforts of the African Union, namely the implementation of its action plan to enhance intra-African trade and the creation of CFTA;

27. Express our deep concern over declining trends in Aid for Trade flows in particular financial resource allocations and disbursement. In this regard, call upon development partners to fulfill their commitments by providing predictable, additional financial resources with the effect of integrating the developing African countries into the multilateral trading system, in particular LDCs, Land-Locked Developing countries (LLDCs) and small and vulnerable economies (SVEs) in Africa by aligning their assistance to the regional and national priorities outlined by the Members;

28. Recall the decisions of the 8th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC8),particularly on TRIPS Non-Violation Situation complaints, the Work Program on Electronic Commerce, Work Program on Small Economies, Preferential Treatment to Services and Services Suppliers of LDCs and Trade Policy Review Mechanism and urge Members to ensure that requisite and decisive follow up actions are taken during the MC9 with a view to achieving their legitimate aims and objectives as stated therein;

29. Urge Members to refrain from making increasingly frequent recourse to the use of Non-Tariff Measures which are in ascendency, predominantly in markets of key export interest to Africa, at high costs and with a technical complexity in compliance with these meeting international standards;

30. Strongly Call on Members to design and strengthen existing tailor-made programs of assistance aimed at improving the capacity of developing countries, in particular, the African countries which face huge challenges in areas such as standards infrastructure including testing in general, the areas of conformity assessment, mutual recognition of standards and meeting technical regulations and international standards in key markets

G. CONCLUSION

31. Commit ourselves to speak with one voice on all the above issues.

Done in Addis Ababa, 25th October 2013

English

Declaration on the African Growth and Opportunity Act

CONFERENCE OF THE AFRICAN UNION
MINISTERS OF TRADE
24th - 25th October 2013
ADDIS-ABABA (ETHIOPIA)

AU/TI/TD/CAMoT-8/AGOA/DECL.FINAL
Original: English

DECLARATION ON THE AFRICAN GROWTH AND OPPORTUNITY ACT

DECLARATION ON THE AFRICAN GROWTH AND OPPORTUNITY ACT

WE, the Ministers of Trade of the Member States of the African Union, meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on October 24-25, 2013 in our 8th Ordinary Session;

Taking into account Africa’s international trade relations and economic partnerships particularly in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa-U.S. Trade and Investment Relations and its cornerstone policy, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA);

Welcoming the US Administration’s renewed engagement and the strong Congressional bi-partisan support to bolster partnership with Africa, spur economic growth, support regional integration, and encourage US companies to trade with and invest in Africa;

Expressing appreciation of President Obama’s announcement to host the next Summit of Heads of State from sub-Saharan Africa in the US, as a platform of engagement in a greater political dialogue on issues of common interest and concern, including AGOA at the bilateral, regional and international levels;

Commending also President Obama’s recent new initiatives: Trade Africa and Power Africa intended to boost trade with sub-Saharan Africa and which have an important potential to usher in a new model of collaboration that could be replicated across the continent in the coming years;

Taking into consideration the positive contribution of AGOA since its enactment in 2000 on economic growth, job creation, improvement of the business environment and stability in Sub-Saharan Africa, its transformation of the way Africa and the U.S. engage on trade and economic issues as well as the need for scaling up efforts in order to harness its full potential;

Welcoming the positive outcomes of the 12th AGOA Forum, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on August 12-13, 2013, under the theme “Sustainable Transformation through Trade and Technology” marked by a dynamic discussion on how AGOA can be better utilized to sustain Africa’s future growth, development and global economic integration and how to move Africa up the global value chain;

Referring to the recommendation of the Ministerial Consultative Meeting of the 12th AGOA Forum which underscored that AGOA should be reauthorized for at least 15 years for all eligible countries and that additional African countries should be offered eligibility;

Reaffirming the need for greater predictability and certainty in unilateral trade preferences schemes, as a necessary condition for sustained investment and growth;

Reiterating the high importance attached to the timely and seamless reauthorization of AGOA by 2014, and the major contribution it could make in supporting Africa’s economic transformation and deepening regional integration processes in order to enhance regional economies of scale, integration into global production chains and intra-African trade;

Hereby adopt the following as a consensus position, henceforth called “Declaration on the African Growth and Opportunity Act”, and:

1. Recommend the development in eligible countries of a national AGOA Export Strategy and the setting-up of a mechanism that can monitor and evaluate the implementation of AGOA as well as the outcomes of its annual Forum at the national level on a voluntary basis, and establish an annual evaluation report at the continental level that could serve as a valuable tracking tool for decision makers;

2. Direct the African Ambassadors Group in Washington, D.C., to continue engaging actively the U.S. Administration and members of Congress on the way forward for a timely, seamless and meaningful reauthorization of AGOA by October 2014 for a period of at least 15 years to ensure that trade with the U.S takes place on a predictable, reliable and legally secure basis in order to inspire investors’ confidence;

3. Recommend that the Third Country Fabric provisions should be made coterminous with AGOA since undue delay of the extension of that provision has devastating effects on loss of orders, jobs, business and investment in both the U.S. and Africa;

4. Also direct the African Ambassadors Group in Washington, D.C to mobilize the support of key stakeholders in the U.S. Administration, the Congress, private sector, civil society and think-tanks on the importance of developing an AGOA compact for the Eligible countries which have effectively developed and implemented a National AGOA export strategy, while underscoring the importance of the inclusive aspect of any project in order to allow the expansion of AGOA ‘s benefits to more countries;

5. Call upon the U.S. Congress to reauthorize the extension of AGOA by October 2014 for at least another 15 years, in an integrated and all-inclusive approach, so as to guarantee the predictability and certainty required for long-term investment and economic growth both in the U.S. and across the African continent, based on mutually reinforcing U.S.-Africa relations;

6. Deeply concerned by any development (including any possible studies) that undermines the seamless renewal of AGOA by 2014, and negatively affect the benefits to eligible countries, Call Upon the US to fast-track the seamless renewal of AGOA by October 2014;

7. Welcome the US Power Africa Programme and call on the US to use this as a model to support broader infrastructure development in Africa;

8. Also Call upon the U.S Administration and Congress to maintain and expand U.S trade preferences to ensure that African products remain competitive and improve rules of origin for some products with high export potential, and that AGOA preferences are not eroded in the context of bilateral or multilateral trade negotiations;

9. Further Call upon the U.S. Administration to integrate AGOA into an inclusive, predictable and sustainable framework that would promote industrial, commercial and agricultural development in the beneficiary countries, expand targeted tradecapacity building and technical assistance in quality assurance and standards, simplify compliance requirements, improve trade-related infrastructure and trade facilitation; enhance trade support and trade finance; and strengthen the regional integration processes in Africa;

10. Recommend the provision of higher visibility for AGOA in the U.S. Congress through the organization of Congressional Delegations to African Regions;

11. Suggest the establishment of a special fund, with the support of African Institutions, to finance advocacy efforts of the African Ambassadors Group in Washington D.C. in respect of AGOA-related trade and investment opportunities and regional integration;

12. Reaffirm our commitment to remain actively seized with this matter which has important implications for the establishment of a sustainable and mutually beneficial economic partnership between the U.S. and Africa based on shared values and common interests; and

13. Commend the strenuous efforts of the African Ambassadors Group in Washington, D.C., in particular the co-Chairs of the Ambassadors’ Working Group, Ethiopia and Mauritius, for their valuable contribution in developing a set of recommendations which have become an important roadmap for engagement with the U.S. side.

Done in Addis Ababa, 25th October 2013

English

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Department Key