Summary
EC proposals to eliminate unfair trading practices along agricultural supply chains are to apply to both EU and non-EU suppliers. This is a welcome development from an ACP perspective given the regularity of UTPs along ACP-EU supply chains for fruit and vegetable products. However the benefits gained by ACP agricultural producers will be critically affected by how the regulation is implemented in practice. It is now up to ACP governments in the countries most affected by UTPs such as Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Ghana in Africa and the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Belize and St Lucia in the Caribbean, to ensure a designated authority is created which is empowered to ‘initiate investigations either on its own initiative or based on a complaint’ into unfair trading practices along ACP-EU supply chains. This issue could usefully be taken up under the trade chapter of the post-Cotonou ACP-EU negotiations which will be launched in August 2018. Read more “EC Proposes New UTP Regulations Should Cover Sourcing from Developing Country Suppliers”
Strong Expansion of EU Fat Filled Milk Powder Exports to West African Markets Resumes
Summary
The large scale growth of EU fat filled milk powder exports to West Africa has resumed after a minor setback in 2016. The expansion of EU exports of fat filled milk powders since 2008 cannot be divorced from changes in EU policies on purchases of skimmed milk powders into intervention and public sector support to private storage schemes. This has stimulated product innovation which has expanded outlets for fat filled milk powders, particularly in West Africa. Equally this trade cannot be divorced from the corporate strategies of EU dairy companies which since 2013 have been investing in West Africa to develop outlets for their expanded milk production in the post-milk quota abolition period. There is a need for greater monitoring of this trade in fat filled milk powders given the impact it can have African efforts to promote the development of local milk-to-dairy supply chains. Read more “Strong Expansion of EU Fat Filled Milk Powder Exports to West African Markets Resumes”
Potential Brexit Related Chocolate Trade Disruptions Highlighted in Industry Submission to Parliament
Summary
In submissions to the UK Parliament’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee the European Chocolatier Ferrero has highlighted the risks Brexit poses to the functioning of its existing pan-EU28 supply chains. Concerns arise in 3 areas: the prospect of an imposition of standard 3rd country duties; the possibility of post-Brexit regulatory divergence and inadequate post-Brexit customs arrangements. Some of the solutions advanced by Ferrero could be relevant in addressing triangular trade challenges faced by ACP exporters beyond the cocoa/chocolate sector. However the structural development implications of some of these suggestions will also need to be borne in mind. Read more “Potential Brexit Related Chocolate Trade Disruptions Highlighted in Industry Submission to Parliament”
The Need for SMEs to be Prepared for the Possible Impact of Different Brexit Scenarios Highlighted
Summary
The lack of preparation by EU SMEs for a possible ‘hard’ Brexit scenario has been highlighted as an important potential threat to the future viability of many EU SMEs. The need to begin contingency planning for the possible consequences of various Brexit scenarios would appear to be relevant for indigenous ACP exporters, the vast majority of which by EU standards are SMEs. The launch by the Irish government of a ‘Be Prepared Grant’ facility to help exposed Irish enterprises plan for various Brexit contingencies could usefully be replicated for a cross section of ACP enterprises and producers associations which are most vulnerable to potential Brexit related disruptions. Funding for such an ACP focussed facility should be sought form the EC and the UK government. Read more “The Need for SMEs to be Prepared for the Possible Impact of Different Brexit Scenarios Highlighted”
March 2018 AU Position on Future Negotiations with EU Sparks Controversy
Summary
The recently adopted African Union (AU) Executive Council decision to recommend the new agreement with the EU ‘should be separated from the ACP context’ is in contradictions to established common ACP positions, which in line with the recent CARIFORUM statement had emphasises the importance of building on the acquis by negotiating with the EU at the all-ACP level. By abandoning substantive negotiations at the pan-ACP level (the only level at which the EC is obliged to conclude an agreement by March 2020) the AU position risks weakening the position of regional negotiators on issues where there are tensions in the ACP-EU relationship. This includes a range of agro-food sector trade issue which in the context of evolving trends could come to take on growing significance fort African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, most notably in regard to the wider policy framework within which the EU seeks the implementation of EPA commitments. This could carry particularly important implications for African structural economic transformation objectives in the agro-food sector. Read more “March 2018 AU Position on Future Negotiations with EU Sparks Controversy”
EC Asserts EUs TRQ approach to Mercosur Beef Access Request Protects Sensitive Sectors
Summary
The debate on the EU’s TRQ offer for beef in the EU-Mercusor negotiations throws into sharp relief the double standards which the EU applies to the use of quantitative restrictions on trade in sensitive agricultural products. While routinely using such tools to protect EU producers in trade arrangements with competitive agricultural exporters, the EU insists on a prohibition on the use of quantitative restriction on imports from the EU under trade arrangements with ACP countries. This is despite the EU often being the major source of agricultural imports in sensitive sectors in EPA signatory countries.
It also raises the potentially important issue of the effects of Brexit in the beef sector both in terms of the threat to the functioning of national and regional beef markets in the ACP (particularly in Africa) and the future value of preferential access to EU27 markets in the post-Brexit context. This will require ACP beef exporters to the EU to pay close attention to the prospects for a ‘hard’ Brexit in the meat sector as EU27/UK negotiation progress throughout the course of 2018. Read more “EC Asserts EUs TRQ approach to Mercosur Beef Access Request Protects Sensitive Sectors”
European Civil Society Organisations call for EC Action on UTPs Along All Agricultural Supply Chains
Summary
In a letter to EC President Juncker European civil society bodies have come out publicly in favour of extending proposed EU regulations on UTPs to supply chains including those sourcing from beyond the EU’s borders. The ACP Group and individual ACP governments with an interest in those supply chains which are most seriously affected could usefully support this initiative, so as to have an EU regulatory framework in place which can be developed in the context of the post-Cotonou negotiations to operationalise the application of these principles along ACP-EU supply chains – from farm to fork. Read more “European Civil Society Organisations call for EC Action on UTPs Along All Agricultural Supply Chains”
Will ACP Exporters Serving the UK Market Under EPAs Still Enjoy Duty Free-Quota Free Access During the Transition Period in EU27/UK Relations?
Will ACP Exporters Serving the UK Market Under EPAs Still Enjoy Duty Free-Quota Free Access During the Transition Period in EU27/UK Relations?
Summary
A revised EU27/UK Withdrawal Agreement has been posted (dated 19th March 2018) which sets out the current areas of agreement and areas of text ‘on which discussions are ongoing as no agreement has yet been found’. While there is now agreement on the UK treatment of imports under EU preferential trade agreement throughout the transition, with the UK being bound to meet in full its market access obligations it remains unclear as to how UK exports are to be treated. This issue is dealt with in a footnote and not in the main body of the text. It is unclear whether agreement has yet been reached on the UK continuing to enjoy the tariff preferences accorded EU27 member throughout the transition period. This is an important issue since it will impact on the negotiating position of ACP government in ensuring the UK addresses their longer term concerns in future trade relations with a post-Brexit Britain. Read more “Will ACP Exporters Serving the UK Market Under EPAs Still Enjoy Duty Free-Quota Free Access During the Transition Period in EU27/UK Relations?”
EU Poultry Meat Exports to Sub-Saharan Africa Down Only Marginally in 2017 Despite South African AI Based Import Restrictions
Summary
EU exporters have been remarkably successful in finding alternative African destinations for exports of poultry parts impacted by South African AI related import restrictions. In the context of the potential for ‘hard’ Brexit related disruptions of the EU27/UK mutual trade in poultry meat the mobility of EU28 poultry meat exporters would appear to raise concerns. This mutual EU27/UK trade currently amounts to around 830,000 tonnes per annum, with analysts suggesting fully 90% of this trade could be halted under a ‘hard’ Brexit scenario. This could lead to a sudden surge in both UK and EU27 poultry meat exports targeting African ACP markets as early as 2021. Concerns also arise over the possible inclusion of Ukrainian derived poultry meat in exports of ‘EU’ poultry meat to African destinations, in violation of the rules or origin requirements of EU trade agreements. Read more “EU Poultry Meat Exports to Sub-Saharan Africa Down Only Marginally in 2017 Despite South African AI Based Import Restrictions”
The Potential Differential Effects of Stricter EU False Coddling Moth Controls on African Exports
Summary
Controlling false coddling moth infestations in the face of stricter EU controls will be a major challenge for African fruit and vegetable exporters, with different countries having very different systems in place for controlling infestations in exported product. South Africa’s sophisticated ‘electronic compliance database’ Phytclean could potentially hold important lessons as national SPS authorities across the Africa seek to get to grips with stricter EU controls. This is potentially an important area for pan-African technical cooperation which would supplement existing EU support programmes to strengthen SPS control capacities implemented through such programmes as COLEACP. Read more “The Potential Differential Effects of Stricter EU False Coddling Moth Controls on African Exports”