Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 418: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will use his influence in Europe to ensure that there are no mandatory negotiations on services, intellectual property, investment or other trade related issues as part of any economic partnership agreement negotiation from 1 January 2008. [33815/07]

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union and the African Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP) have reached a critical stage. The mandate for the negotiations of Economic Partnership Agreements comes from the legally-binding Cotonou Agreement, the central objective of which is "reducing and eventually eradicating poverty, consistent with the objectives of sustainable development and the gradual integration of the African Caribbean Pacific countries into the world economy". In line with Article 37.1 of the Cotonou Agreement, negotiations began in September 2002 between the European Commission and the ACP countries and the agreements are required to come into force by 1 January 2008 in order to be compatible with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. For the purposes of the EPA negotiations, the ACP states are organised into six regional groupings.

The rationale behind the EPAs is that they would be comprehensive instruments which would include trade in services, investment and other trade related areas, as well as trade in goods. However the negotiations have revealed a number of difficulties between the two sides. These include resistance on the part of a number of ACP countries to the inclusion of non-goods items; differences of interests within particular regional groupings; and fears about the impact of opening ACP markets to EU exports.

The current aim is that, where agreement on a full EPA is not possible by the end of the year, a form of "stepping stone" agreement should be signed, based on market access arrangements for goods only. The European Commission envisages that such stepping stone agreements will lead to full EPAs. The Government have consistently maintained that the outcome of the negotiations should result in agreements that are supportive of ACP countries' development needs and their poverty reduction efforts. In this regard the Taoiseach made the point at the recent EU Africa summit in Lisbon that the EU approach should be "one of goodwill, flexibility, understanding". Ireland considers that it is vitally important that whatever arrangements are put in place do not disadvantage the developing countries. That will continue to be the core of our approach, and our position in this regard was reiterated at yesterday's General Affairs and External Relations Council.