| UK steps into row over trade rules
FT by Alan Beattie
World Trade Editor
22 March 2005
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/b6685b1c-9a76-11d9-a094-00000e2511c8,ft_acl=,s01=1.html The European Union should not press poor countries to accept rules governing investment, competition and government procurement in return for continued special trade access to European markets, the UK will argue today. A new policy paper from the UK Department for Trade and Industry intervenes in a controversy over proposed economic partnership agreements (EPAs) the EU is negotiating with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. The European Commission has argued that rules on investment, competition and government spending - three of the four so-called "Singapore issues" in world trade - should be incorporated into the EPAs to encourage investment and growth. But the UK policy paper says: "It is for ACP regional groups to judge the development benefits of any agreements on these issues and the EU should not push for them to be discussed." The three controversial Singapore issues were removed from the current Doha round of trade talks at the behest of developing countries, which argued they were unwarranted incursions into economic sovereignty. The European Commission said yesterday that the Singapore issues would help growth and were often brought up by ACP countries themselves. Development campaigners, which have also opposed the investment and competition rules, were delighted at the UK's intervention. "African ministers are usually better placed to understand Africa's development interests than are EU trade negotiators," said Matt Griffith, trade policy analyst at Cafod, a London-based non-governmental organisation. Rich countries have sought to address the concerns of developing countries within current trade negotiations, with the EU promising to end all export subsidies for European farmers. At the weekend the Group of 20 developing countries within the World Trade Organisation, meeting in Delhi, called for those agricultural subsidies to be eliminated within five years.
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