Summary
The Task Force Rural Africa (TFRA) advances a series of specific recommendations and initiatives aimed at ensuring African agro-food sector development contributes fully to addressing the employment and income earning opportunities challenge faced in Africa. A critical challenge is seen as promoting an appropriate trajectory for ‘the development of the African food industry and food markets’. However this will need to address the tension between the EU’s quest for new food product markets and African aspirations for the structural development of national agro-food sectors. In some sectors this will require a critical review of current patterns of trade and investment relations (e.g. in the dairy sector). TFRA recommendation on structured policy dialogues could prove valuable in this regard. A key issue to be addressed will be the interpretation and application of existing EU-Africa trade agreement commitments, which go beyond WTO rules and undermine national trade policy sovereignty and the effectiveness of chosen policy measures. It will also need to effectively operationalize the EU’s new unfair trading practices directive as this impacts Africa-EU trade flows and support measures to strengthen the functioning of local agro-food sector supply chains. Read more “Task Force for Rural Africa Sets Out Four Strategic Areas and Six Initiatives”
Category: Eastern African
New Tanzanian Air Link to UK Could Help Side Step No-Deal Brexit Threat to Horticulture Exports to UK Via the Netherlands
Summary
Negotiations with ATCL to expand air-freight services to the UK could offer a means for Tanzanian horticulture and floriculture exporters to side step the potential disruptions to shipments along triangular supply chains, which could arise under a no-deal Brexit. In products such as cut flowers and avocadoes the Netherlands and France represent important trading hubs and initial ports of landing for expanding Tanzanian exports. Many of these imports form Tanzania are traded onward into the UK market. In this context expanding direct air freight links to the UK would take on considerable importance. What is more if under a no-deal Brexit, in the interest of concluding new international trade agreements, the UK were to pursue its own system of SPS controls, then SPS control issues would become an important area for trade policy dialogue with the UK. This needs to be seen in a context where Tanzanian and other ACP horticultural exporters are facing increasingly strict EU SPS controls. These EU SPS controls are drawn up on the basis of the wide variety of agro-climatic conditions which exist across the EU27, with the agro-climatic conditions in the UK making import controls for some pests and fungal infections les relevant or even entirely irrelevant. Read more “New Tanzanian Air Link to UK Could Help Side Step No-Deal Brexit Threat to Horticulture Exports to UK Via the Netherlands”
New EU Market Observatory for Certain Fruit and Vegetables Launched
Summary
The EC has established a new fruit and vegetable market observatory. The value of this market observatory for ACP producers crucially hinges around the product coverage and the level of detail provided through the activities of the observatories. If it is to be of value to ACP producers the fruit and vegetable market observatory needs to cover products of particular interest to ACP producers (e.g. onions) and regularly provide data on EU exports to all ACP countries in products which are of concern to ACP producers. This is essential given the disparity in size between EU production and the size of most ACP economies, where even small export volumes in EU terms can have serious market disturbance effects in individual ACP countries. The work of the market observatory in the citrus sector could help ease some of the pressure from EU producer interests for the stricter application of EU SPS controls, given the unjustified allegations of market domestic citrus market crisis in Spain. Read more “New EU Market Observatory for Certain Fruit and Vegetables Launched”
UK Procedures for SPS Inspections of Plant and Plant Products under a No-Deal Brexit
Summary
If the EU no longer carries out necessary phytosanitary checks on plants and plant products imported into the UK via EU27 member states, the UK will need to apply standard 3rd country phytosanitary controls to ACP plant products exported to the UK via a EU27 member state. The application of standard 3rd country phytosanitary controls along ACP triangular supply chains could prove disruptive given the UK government’s current planned system of controls. These controls are seen as commercially non-viable by operators involve in current triangular supply chain arrangements. There is therefore an urgent need for ACP governments whose exporters are involved in triangular supply chains involving the affected products to secure from the EU authorities a firm commitment that necessary plant health checks on products destined for the UK market will continue to be carried out in the EU27. Read more “UK Procedures for SPS Inspections of Plant and Plant Products under a No-Deal Brexit”
How Would ACP Least Developed Countries Be Impacted by a 12th April No Deal Brexit?
Summary
The ending of the two year notification period set out under Article 50 of the EU Treaty alongside the House of Commons rejection of the Withdrawal Agreement for a 3rd time, leaves the Brexit process on borrowed time. The UK government will now have to submit an alternative way forward in the Brexit process if a no deal Brexit is to be avoided on the 12th April 2019. While this may include a longer extension of the Article 50 period beyond the 2 weeks the EU Council has currently granted, the prospect of a no-deal Brexit on 12th April cannot be ruled out. This is despite a huge 240 Parliamentary majority against the UK leaving the EU without a deal. While a no-deal Brexit will not impact on the duty free quota free access which LDCs enjoy to the UK market, where the UK government has committed to rolling over the existing EU preferential system for LDCs as a unilateral UK trade arrangement, a wide variety of non-tariff related issues will also need to be addressed. If these issues are not comprehensively addressed then current trade flows from LDCs could be disrupted in the short term while in the longer term the value of the duty free-quota free access enjoyed could be undermined by changes in the UK’s independent MFN tariff regime. In addition there are a range of UK trade policy issues which need to be addressed if trade with least developed countries is to become a tool for wider poverty focussed sustainable development in LDCs. Most notably in this regard are the rules of origin and SPS control requirements to be applied by the UK to imports from LDCs. Read more “How Would ACP Least Developed Countries Be Impacted by a 12th April No Deal Brexit?”
Which ACP EPA Signatory Countries Would be Most Vulnerable to a 12th April No Deal Brexit?
Summary
With the ending of the two year notification period set out under Article 50 of the EU Treaty and the House of Commons having rejected the Withdrawal Agreement for a 3rd time, the Brexit process is on borrowed time. The UK government will now have to submit an alternative way forward in the Brexit process if a no deal Brexit is to be avoided on the 12th April 2019. While this may include a longer extension of the Article 50 period beyond the 2 weeks the EU Council has currently granted, the prospect of a no-deal Brexit on 12th April cannot be ruled out, despite a huge 240 Parliamentary majority against the UK leaving the EU without a deal. Against this background, after providing an update on the Brexit process in the UK, this article reviews the situation of ACP countries and regions which currently trade with the UK under an EU EPA. Read more “Which ACP EPA Signatory Countries Would be Most Vulnerable to a 12th April No Deal Brexit?”
The UK’s Proposed New MFN Tariff Regime: Protects ACP Interests in the Short Term But…..
The UK’s Proposed New MFN Tariff Regime: Protects ACP Interests in the Short Term
Summary
While the UK’s proposed no-deal Brexit MFN tariff schedule would ease immediate ACP concerns over the loss of value of rolled over tariff preferences arising from the removal of MFN import duties, the short duration of the proposed measures provides no longer term assurances of the value of any tariff preferences which might be rolled over under the UK’s proposed ‘Continuity Agreements’. The new announcement leaves unaddressed just how the UK plans to roll over existing ACP tariff preferences under a no-deal outcome to the current Brexit negotiations. Indeed, it could see ACP banana, horticulture, rice, beef, fisheries and cocoa product exporters all facing new tariffs on exports to the UK if Continuity Agreements are not concluded by the date of the UK’s ‘no-deal’ departure from the EU. What is more serious questions have been raised as to the viability and sustainability of specific UK proposals to avert a hard border on the island of Ireland. Read more “The UK’s Proposed New MFN Tariff Regime: Protects ACP Interests in the Short Term But…..”
Is the Final Count Down to Brexit Underway or Will the ACP have Three More Months to Take Action to Mitigate the Trade Disruption Effects of No Deal Brexit?
Summary
The UK government has now laid down a clear Parliamentary route to defining a final UK position on the ‘no-deal’ Brexit option. This could lead to an extension of the article 50 process for either 3 month or 21 months. This would provide time for ACP governments to set in place policy initiatives to mitigate the adverse effects of a no-deal Brexit on ACP trade with both the UK and the EU27. This would require the launching of a specific political initiative towards the UK government to ensure three major issue clusters are addressed: the shortcomings of the UK’s existing ‘Continuity Agreement’ approach; the trilateral administrative arrangements required to ensure continuity of trade flows in the immediate post-Brexit period and the value of existing DFQF access granted ACP countries is retained through accommodating ACP concerns in the UK’s future MFN tariff schedule. It would also require the launching of a political initiative towards the EU to ensure issues in future EU27 relations arising from the UK’s departure from the EU are fully addressed, so as to reduce the adverse effects of Brexit on ACP economies. Read more “Is the Final Count Down to Brexit Underway or Will the ACP have Three More Months to Take Action to Mitigate the Trade Disruption Effects of No Deal Brexit?”
‘No-Deal’ Brexit Challenges in Cut Flower Sector Highlight Problems for ACP Triangular Supply Chains
Summary
The Netherlands plays a dominant role as a distribution hub for ACP cut flowers to markets across the EU28. Any disruption UK cut flower imports from the Netherlands would carry important implications for most ACP cut flowers exporters, unless remedial administrative measures can be put in place. The likelihood of delays stripping value out of cut flower supply chains will require the role of the UK Groceries Code Adjudicator to be extended, with a special focus on ensuring unfair trading practices don’t increase in response to Brexit related trade disruptions. ACP cut flower exporters will need to urgently explore the scope for increased direct freight flights to the UK to circumvent delays along triangular supply chains. Those ACP cut flower exporters who can successfully ‘Brexit proof’ their supply chains will be well placed to capitalise on the shortages and rising prices a ‘no-deal’ Brexit could give rise to. Read more “‘No-Deal’ Brexit Challenges in Cut Flower Sector Highlight Problems for ACP Triangular Supply Chains”
UK Development NGOs Call for Extension of Existing Tariff Preferences on Unilateral Basis While Problems of UK Continuity Agreements Are Addressed
Summary
UK development NGOs have described as ‘unreasonable’ the UK government’s expectation that developing countries sign onto ‘Continuity Agreements’, without being able to assess their value. UK Secretary of State Fox has indicated he sees no harm in eliminating tariff where the UK has no production interest. However eliminating tariffs in areas where the UK has no production interest would potentially impact adversely on over €1 billion of exports from African and Caribbean countries to the UK of agri-food products where preferential duty free access is enjoyed against a background of high EU MFN tariffs. This would be likely to cause harm to the export interest of these African and Caribbean exporters who are currently being encouraged to sign on to ‘UK-only’ ‘Continuity Agreements’. Such agreements while ensuring continuity of current tariff preferences would provide no assurances on the continuity of the value of existing tariff preferences. This is particularly the case if the impacts of a ‘no deal’ Brexit on ACP triangular trade flows to the UK via EU27 member states are taken into account. This strongly suggests a need for the UK government to review its current approach to the signing of ‘Continuity Agreements’ by granting unilaterally an extension of current terms and conditions of access to the UK market for developing countries, so that future trade agreements can be based on a full assessment of the benefits of bilateral trade deals with the UK, in light of the changed policy and commercial context emerging in the post-Brexit period. Read more “UK Development NGOs Call for Extension of Existing Tariff Preferences on Unilateral Basis While Problems of UK Continuity Agreements Are Addressed”