THE deferment of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) by the EU is not acceptable to the African Caribbean Pacific countries.
ACP secretary-general Dr Patrick Gomes said this was something they hoped to resolve next week when the ACP-EU joint parliamentary assembly, .
“We also look at what’s happening in terms of investment and financing to move forward our countries and that links very closely to the Economic Partnership Agreement, which is now come up against a stumbling block for the Pacific in which the EU wants to defer any more negotiations for another three years and we do not find that acceptable at all,” Mr Gomes said.
He said having the deferment was not realistic “under the conditions of fisheries and managing of the fisheries resources for island states.
The EU had called for a deferment of the EPA negotiations for three years, seeking reforms of the region’s fisheries management systems.
The EU started negotiations for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the Pacific region more than a decade ago.
“Bearing in mind Pacific States’ sensitivities on fisheries and Pacific plans to review fisheries resources management in the region, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström has suggested to await the outcome of that review and to return to the would-be comprehensive regional EPA in three years’ time,” the EU statement on the deferment of the negotiations said.
“Meanwhile, the EU is continuing to implement faithfully the Economic Partnership Agreement concluded in 2007 with Papua New Guinea and Fiji, and which has an accession clause for other Pacific countries — big or small — that wish to join this agreement.”
