African Ministers on EPAs

African ministers have adopted a declaration on EPAs calling for singapore issues to be out of the EPAs; for asymmetry in market access aspects; for article 24 to be amended to allow for these asymmetries before further negotiations.

Extracts from declaration adopted five minutes ago at the end of the conference today include:

Singapore issues:

We reaffirm the position of African countries that, except for trade facilitation, the other three singapore issues of investment, competition policy and transparency in government procurement should remain outside the ambit of the WTO Doha work programme /EPA negotiations.'

Asymmetries and flexibilities in EPAs.
'We reiterate that Article XXIV of GATT needs to be appropriately amended to allow for necessary special and differential treatment, less than full reciprocity and explicit flexibilities that are consistent with the asymmetry required to make EPAs pro-development. Conclusions of the market access aspects of the EPAs should take place upon completion of the amendment'

Intellectual Property Rights.
'We note that the African group initiated the discussion on the clarification of flexibilities in TRIPs, particularly in relation to patents and public health, as well as biodiversity. We call on African countries to take appropriate measures at the national level to make full use of these flexibilities in line with the outcome of the AU commission workshop held in march 2005 in Addis ababa. We call on the EU not to introduce in the EPA negotiations any TRIPs plus proposals (which go beyond existing TRIPS obligations) which would compromise these flexibilities. If such proposals are advanced, they should be rejected'

Detail report later.

All the best,

TEtteh