EU Trade Policies: the blueprint

1
EU Trade Policies the blueprint

• Karin Ulmer, Aprodev
• (Association of WCC-related Development
  Organisations in Europe)
• Presentation for UNCTAD Conference Delhi, 27 Feb
  2008
• EU trade policy the blueprint
• Global Europe and its development implications
• Equity in trade negotiations

2
Global Europe

• Global Trends
• Proliferation of FTA
• High asymmetry
• Lack of governance and democracy
• Global Europe
• Choice for aggressive competition
• Lock in EU domestic policy reforms and promote
  deregulation
• Cohesive EU foreign economic policy soft trade
  power
• New role for buisness in trade-rule making
• Objectives
• Market opening in trade and services
• Competing for geopolitical influence
• Tackling import regimes and behind the border
  obstacles (NTB, TBT)
• Introduce new issues, and stronger rules and
  standards

3
Trade policies (macro)

• Trade related issuesTackling the whole
  operational environment incl.services and supply
  chains
• Competition
• Lack of proper regulations lead to corrupt
  bidding process private monopolicies
• Capacity and leverage to investigate and enforce
  rules
• Investment rules
• Will attract FDI is questionable assumption
• manage investment (performance requirements/local
  content)
• Balance of rights obligations for investor and
  home country
• Investment promotion
• Enforcing good investor behavior
• Government Procurement
• Significant share of GDP get policies right
• Little evidence on what kind of GP is needed
• Intellectual Property Rights
• Effective IPR to promote health, industrial
  devevelopment, food security and education
• IPR can stifle or promote innovation (copy right)
• EU focus on enforcement provision rather than
  access to technologies information
• EU seeks control over IT for own competitiveness
• EU to cooperate in WIPO to address development
  deficiencies

• Market access
• Push for full and fast tariff elimination
• TDM fall short to offer effective protection
  (infant industry, SSM)
• Rules of orgin further fragmentate production
• Subsidies countervailing measures not addressed
• Introduction of MFN clause is detrimental to
  South-South trade
• Service sector
• Priority to market access over sequencing
  regulation regulatory cooperation and reform
• Should have sound competition frameworks in place
  to prevent private monopolicies
• Lack of safeguards
• Limited offer on Mode IV

4
Global Europe and its development implications

• Precondition to reap development potentials
• Provide evidence on development benefit
• Alignment with national development strategies
• Guidance for substantial shift to achieve best
  outcomes for poor producers/traders
• Imperative positive development outcomes for
  non-WTO compulsion issues
• Non-negotiable EU template is a non starter
• Arbitration against objective agreed criteria
  (development benchmarks)
• Development package
• No lock in of of donor driven policy reforms
• Non-conditional, non-punitive aid packages,
  de-link from signing FTA
• State of art
• Reference to development in overarching
  objectives but no overriding legal power
• Gender dimension is absent
• Transparency and participatory decision-making
  remains unfulfilled
• Become modern or get out! Think big. Be big.
  Play big.

5
Chicken campaign results 2005 Popular advocacy -
Political participationsource www.acdic.net

• Imports
• Fixed duty increased (1450 CFA)
• Ad valorem maintained (20)
• VAT added 17.5
• Veteranary tax added 1.75
• Quota decreased and temporarily stopped

• Local markets
• Domestic production increased (demand of 13 500
  day chicken in 2004 to 32 500 in 2005)
• 75 of consumers informed
• Demand for imported chicken decreased
• Private investment in domestic poultry sector
• Ongoing monitoring and public pressure
• Petition of appr. 100 national parliamentarians
  to support domestic poultry sector
• Establishment of poultry farming representation

6
Poultry sector specific trade policy options

• Criteria Sector with disproportionate gender
  impact
• Special/sensitive product maintain flexibility
  for mix of policy measures (risk standstill
  clause)
• Special Safeguards Measures TDM too burdensome
• Development package supply side capacity
• Financial services (assets, bankruptcy)
• Farm to fork EU food safety regulations and
  responsibilty
• Monitoring sector specific observatory
• Review of trade provisions

7
Trade policies (macro)
Social Economic policies (micro)

• Trade related issuesTackling the whole
  operational environment incl.services and supply
  chains
• Competition
• Lack of proper regulations lead to corrupt
  bidding process private monopolicies
• Capacity and leverage to investigate and enforce
  rules
• Investment rules
• Will attract FDI is questionable assumption
• manage investment (performance requirements/local
  content)
• Balance of rights obligations for investor and
  home country
• Investment promotion
• Enforcing good investor behavior
• Government Procurement
• Significant share of GDP get policies right
• Little evidence on what kind of GP is needed
• Intellectual Property Rights
• Effective IPR to promote health, industrial
  devevelopment, food security and education
• IPR can stifle or promote innovation (copy right)
• EU focus on enforcement provision rather than
  access to technologies information
• EU seeks control over IT for own competitiveness
• EU to cooperate in WIPO to address development
  deficiencies

• Think small first
• Slaughterhouses Decentralised women cooperatives
  providing slaughter services direct at market
  (smart not high tech)
• Financial services for women/SME in local markets
• Support informal netwoks
• Invest in local market facilities and
  infrastructure
• Traditional knowledge domestic breeding
  varieties (riskbirdflue)

8
Trade policies (macro)
Social Economic policies (micro)

• Market access
• Push for full and fast tariff elimination
• TDM fall short to offer effective protection
  (infant industry, SSM)
• Rules of orgin further fragmentate production
• Subsidies countervailing measures not addressed
• Introduction of MFN clause is detrimental to
  South-South trade
• Service sector
• Priority to market access over sequencing
  regulation regulatory cooperation and reform
• Should have sound competition frameworks in place
  to prevent private monopolicies
• Lack of safeguards
• Limited offer on Mode IV

• Think small first
• The difficulty is that gender issues are very
  silent as they are hidden away at the micro
  level, whereas trade issues and volumes and
  figures are (made) very visible at the macro
  level.Tilder Kumiichi
• What kind of growth? Export orientated
  agriculture (agro-buisnesss) or protection of
  import competing agriculture
• Feminisation of poverty Poultry farming, however
  small, can effectively improve livelihoods
  (economic benefits, social advantages, cultural
  and traditional dimension)
• Dynamic gender relations commercial poultry
  farming and backyard poultry farming entry point
  to enterpreneurship
• Potential for food processing industry.

9
Illustration Gender benchmark on special and
sensitive products (flexibility for protection)

• In addition to WTO criteria for special products
  of poverty alleviation, employment, and food
  security, a fourth criteria on disproportionate
  gender impact could be added.
• Gender criteria could be defined as follows if
  a sector is particularly critical to the
  livelihood of poor women and liberalisation would
  jeopardise this function, then the sector is
  eligible for nomination as sensitive until the
  affected women can compete or find other
  comparable income opportunities. Alternatively,
  if a sector is liberalised and found to have a
  disproportionate impact on poor women, then
  liberalisation schedules can be halted or
  reversed.
• A process could be designed whereby
• a)      Each DC country lists the product/sector
  that is gender sensitive on the basis of
  objective and agreed criteria, such as womens
  employment, womens share of credits,
  decision-making, and autonomy in entrepreneurial
  activities.
• b)      The number of gender sensitive products
  may possibly be limited by a maximum number per
  country
• c)      Gender sensitive products would also be
  declared special products.
• d)      Safeguard measures can be evoked for
  gender sensitive products.

10
Illustration Equity benchmark (positive
discrimination)

• Equity benchmarks should allow and promote
  positive measures under aid for trade,
  development support, investment, and/or
  mitigating and accompanying stipulations that are
  designed in a way that explicitly address gender
  specific measures. These include for example,
  safety nets, provisions that promote women
  entrepreneurs, regulations that encourage supply
  capacity building, and control over productive
  resources.  

11
Benchmarking Development in trade
negotiations Byron Lewis (2007) Formulating
sustainable development benchmarks for a EU
Cariforum EPA Caribbean perspectives, published
by University of West Indies, Aprodev and ICTSD
McCarthy, Kruger Fourie (2007) Benchmarking
EPA negotiations between EU and SADCpublished by
Tralac, Aprodev and ICTSD