Ghanaian Government Lifts Restrictions on Specific Conforming Vegetable Exporters

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Summary
After announcing a blanket ban on exports of leafy vegetables to the EU at the end of May to avert a possible EU import ban, the government of Ghana is gradually relaxing the ban as exporters and farmers prove compliance with export requirements. This is a slow process with the credibility of this approach hinging around being able to demonstrate that the current approach adopted by the Ghanaian PPRSD works in practice in enhancing the SPS compliance of Ghanaian exports of the products in question Read more “Ghanaian Government Lifts Restrictions on Specific Conforming Vegetable Exporters”

Tunisian Citrus Black Spot outbreak linked to Infected planting materials not trade in citrus fruit

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Summary
Confirmation of citrus black spot infections on imports of fruit from Tunisia is being linked to the illegal importation of infected planting materials. While the outbreak suggests the infection can take root in Mediterranean production zones, it has no impact on the debate on whether trade in citrus fruit from South Africa can be a vector for disease transmission to citrus growing areas of the EU. The European Commission should continue to resist Spanish citrus producer pressure to include the Phyllosticta citricarpa infection as a ‘priority quarantine pest’, since its inclusion would carry serious trade consequences for ACP citrus exporters. Read more “Tunisian Citrus Black Spot outbreak linked to Infected planting materials not trade in citrus fruit”

SADC EPA Group Initial Continuity Agreement with the UK

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Summary
A rolled over EPA between the UK and the governments of South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Namibia, Lesotho and Mozambique (SACU+M) was initialled on 10th September 2019. This preserves current tariff preferences for UK exporters and SACU+M exporters. While this is all that is required from a UK perspective and addresses the most immediate tariff concerns of SACU exporters it is unclear whether the concluded agreement addresses medium to long term issues of vital importance to the future value of the rolled over agreement. For SACU+M exporters these issues relate to: immediate trade administration challenges; the future of inherited quantitative restrictions on duty free-quota free access for certain South African exports; future UK only SPS import control requirements; the scope for rules of origin improvements when the UK has escaped current restrictions driven by EU27 interests; the future of the UK’s MFN tariff scheme, which is critical to the future value of rolled over tariff preferences. If these issues have not been addressed as an integral part of the initialled EPA, then additional declarations and commitments will need to be annexed if the UK’s new trade policy is to live up to the pro-development announcements which UK government representatives have been making. Read more “SADC EPA Group Initial Continuity Agreement with the UK”

The EU Mercosur Agreement Part 4 Will the Mercosur Agreement Pose a Threat to Belizean Orange Juice Exports?

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Summary
Spanish citrus producers are concerned the new Mercosur trade agreement could flood the EU market with frozen orange juice concentrate.  This potentially impacts on frozen orange juice exporters from Belize and South African, with this being of particular concern to Belize where these exports constituted 1.3% of total exports to the EU in 2018. The conclusion of the Mercosur agreement could give added importance to exploiting the ‘rolled-over’ CARIFORUM-UK ‘Continuity Agreement’, given the potential trade disruptions which could arise from a ‘no-deal’ Brexit for the export of reconstituted orange juice and domestic EU27 orange juice to the UK. Read more “The EU Mercosur Agreement Part 4 Will the Mercosur Agreement Pose a Threat to Belizean Orange Juice Exports?”

The EU-Mercosur Agreement Part 3: Will the Mercosur Agreement Pose a Threat to the Stability of EU27 Banana Markets

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Summary
EU banana producers have expressed fears over the impact any EU-Mercosur banana tariff concessions could have on the level of banana imports from Brazil. Based on recent trends in EU banana imports in response to tariff reductions these fears have solid foundations. However from an ACP perspective such fears should not be overstated with the likely market effects of increased Brazilian banana exports to the EU needing to be seen in the context of all the wider sources of pressure on the EU market position of ACP banana exporters. Individual ACP banana exporters will need to evaluate the specific implications of any new Mercosur agreement tariff concessions for the particular EU banana market components they serve. Where necessary enhanced marketing and product differentiation strategies will need to be set in place in order to maintain their current export trade to the EU. However, it needs to be recognized this will not be possible for all existing ACP banana exporters. Read more “The EU-Mercosur Agreement Part 3: Will the Mercosur Agreement Pose a Threat to the Stability of EU27 Banana Markets”

The EU-Mercosur Agreement Part 2: EU Sectoral Impacts and Implications for the ACP

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Summary
The main products of concern to ACP countries where quota restricted duty free access is to be phased in for Mercosur exporters are sugar; ethanol; beef; poultry meat; and rice. The TRQ granted for sugar will reduce the margins of tariff preference enjoyed by ACP sugar exporters on EU27 markets and intensify price pressure on ACP sugar suppliers. It will make supplying the EU27 market increasingly difficulty for all but the most competitive ACP sugar exporters, unless some form of quality differentiated offering is on sale. In contrast the TRQ for ethanol is likely to have little impact on current ACP exports which are marginal. The TRQ for beef could generate increased competition on beef market components which Namibian exporters are increasingly targeting, although further investment in quality based product differentiation could serve to insulate Namibian exporters from any adverse price effects. In the poultry meat sector the new TRQ could serve to further fuel the growth in EU exports of frozen poultry parts to African market. In the rice sector given the relatively small size of the TRQ granted to Mercosur exporters it is unclear to what extent this poses a threat to ACP rice exporters in Guyana and Suriname. Read more “The EU-Mercosur Agreement Part 2: EU Sectoral Impacts and Implications for the ACP”

Ghanaian Banana Exporters Spell Out Implications of Loss of DFQF Access to UK Market

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Summary
Failure to ensure a basis for continued DFQF access for Ghanaian banana exports to the UK market could result in the loss of supply agreements as a result of the inclusion of ‘delivered duty paid’ requirements in current UK super market tendering arrangements. The UK government urgently needs to decide upon the basis for providing continued DFQF for Ghanaian exports on an interim basis, while the regional complications around concluding  regional West African reciprocal trade agreements, arising from the Nigerian governments reluctance to sign on to such agreement, are resolved. Speedily setting in place the regulatory measures required to ensure continued DFQF access for Ghanaian banana exports can be seen as vital to ensuring successful tenders are made for the current banana supply contracts being placed by UK supermarkets. Read more “Ghanaian Banana Exporters Spell Out Implications of Loss of DFQF Access to UK Market”

UK Parliament Side-lined in Push for 31st October Departure from the EU

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Summary
Given the position adopted by Prime Minister Johnson, the consequent lack of progress in EU/UK discussions and UK government’s manoeuvres to side line the parliament, a no-deal Brexit now looks inevitable. Despite government claims of accelerated implementation of Brexit preparations, there is widespread scepticism that a sustained disruption of UK trade flows can be avoided. This carries implications for ACP exporters which now need to be urgently assessed and where possible addressed before the 31st October 20190. This will require action by both ACP exporters, in regard to reviewing how their export supply chains function and their vulnerabilities to a no-deal Brexit, and ACP governments in regard to the initiation of parallel dialogues with the EU and UK authorities on how to minimise disruption of the ACP exports trade with EU28 members under a no-deal outcome to the Brexit process. Read more “UK Parliament Side-lined in Push for 31st October Departure from the EU”

No Sign of Enhanced SACU-UK EPA Despite UK High Commissioner Talking Up Opportunities Brexit Will Create

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Summary
The UK High Commissioner to South Africa Nigel Casey has argued Brexit will be good for South Africa since the UK will no longer be tied to EU restrictions. However this will only be the case if the UK takes the necessary steps to remove EU27 driven restrictions on South African exports as an integral part of the conclusion of the initial ‘Continuity Agreement’. This will require modification and extension of the existing EPA provisions where these constitute an obstacle to the full development of South African and wider African export potential in its trade with the UK. This includes addressing issues related to: rules of origin; SPS controls; the removal of quantitative restrictions and, in the short term, trade administration challenges and issues related to the unfair functioning of supply chains. This latter issue needs to be seen in a context where a ‘no-deal’ Brexit is likely to generate substantial additional costs, which under current practices are likely to be passed back down to African exporters.  Read more “No Sign of Enhanced SACU-UK EPA Despite UK High Commissioner Talking Up Opportunities Brexit Will Create”

The EU-Mercosur Agreement Part 1: Overview and Lessons for the ACP

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Summary
The structure of the EU-Mercosur FTA potentially holds important lessons for ACP governments. This is most notably the case in regard to the use of TRQs to carefully manage trade liberalisation in sensitive agro-food sectors. The EU makes extensive use of TRQs under trade agreements with its major agro-food sector trade partners in order to protect the interests of EU farmers, while meeting consumer demand. The contrasts sharply with the use made of TRQs by African governments in trade agreements with their major agro-food sector trade partner, the EU. With the exception of the EU-SADC EPA no other African governments have used TRQs to manage imports from the EU in sensitive agro-food products. In addition the application of tariff standstill commitments to products not subject to tariff reduction commitments under the EU-Mercosur agreement is potentially of concern to ACP governments if this approach is extended to the interpretation and application of EPA commitments. The use of regionalisation arrangements for SPS controls however would usefully be extended to the treatment of certain ACP exports to the EU (e.g. Namibian beef and lamb exports). Finally the ’non-alteration’ rule included in the Mercosur agreement could usefully be taken up and applied in an extended form in the context of a no-deal Brexit under the existing EU-ACP EPAs and rolled over UK-ACP Continuity Agreements. Read more “The EU-Mercosur Agreement Part 1: Overview and Lessons for the ACP”