Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 150: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if the recently signed economic partnership agreement between the EU and 13 Caribbean nations took account of the concerns of many non-governmental organisations, including Irish NGOs, on aid, trade and the right to a form of development that would take account of differing indigenous, economic, social and cultural circumstances. [38390/08]

Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has worked consistently to ensure that the negotiations for Economic Partnership Agreements between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries should support the ACP countries' development needs and their poverty reduction programmes.

I welcome the signature on 15 October of an Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and thirteen of the fifteen members of the Caribbean Forum of African Caribbean Pacific States (CARIFORUM). The Republic of Guyana subsequently signed the Agreement on 20 October. The EU has pledged to work with Haiti and other Caribbean partners towards signature by Haiti, the fifteenth CARIFORUM member State. In the meantime, as a Least Developed Country, Haiti will continue to benefit from free access to European markets.

I have had discussions with Irish and other NGOs on their concerns that the Economic Partnership Agreements offered to the ACP countries by the EU do not sufficiently address development needs. I have outlined the role which Ireland is playing to ensure that development needs are strongly supported in the Agreements, including the Agreement with the Caribbean States.

The negotiations leading up to the Agreement were launched in April 2004. The negotiating mandate was derived from the legally-binding 2000 Cotonou Agreement between the EU and the ACP states, the central objective of which is the "reduction and eventual eradication of poverty, consistent with the objectives of sustainable development and the gradual integration of the ACP countries into the world economy". The resulting Agreement is the first comprehensive North-South trade and development agreement in the global economy. It includes a package of measures to stimulate trade, investment and innovation and will help build a regional market among the Caribbean countries. It also promotes sustainable development and poverty elimination through a series of important transition periods and safeguard clauses and the implementation of enhanced development cooperation to support the implementation of the Agreement. This will include financial cooperation from the European Development Fund and from EU member States.