Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 22: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the ongoing consultation between the EU and countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific with regard to economic partnership agreements in view of his recent attendance at a meeting which demonstrated the damaging effects of proposed EPA's on ACP countries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21825/09]

Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland has taken a consistently strong position within the EU on the complex range of issues involved in the negotiation of Economic Partnership Agreements with the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries. The negotiations are carried out by the European Commission, on behalf of the EU. Ireland has been one of a group of Member States which has ensured that the negotiations are followed closely, at political level, by the Member States.

These Agreements cover both trade and development issues. They are needed as a result of the decision by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that the EU's longstanding unilateral trade preferences for ACP countries established unfair discrimination between developing countries. The Cotonou Agreement of 2000 provided for the negotiation of new Agreements with ACP States, which would be acceptable to the WTO. On this basis, the WTO agreed in 2001 to grant a waiver to the EU to continue unilateral preferences until January 2008.

As the Deputy will be aware, the negotiating process has been a difficult one. By the time of the January 2008 deadline, only one of the ACP regional groupings, representing fifteen countries of the Caribbean region, had initialled and signed a full Agreement with the EU. A further 21 ACP countries initialled interim Economic Partnership Agreements. The interim Agreement with Ghana, Ivory Coast and Cameroon has been signed by the European Commission and the Member States. The Agreement was signed by Ireland on 18 December 2008, following Dáil approval. There has also been progress on the Agreement with five of the countries of the Southern Africa Regional Development Community (SADC), which are expected to sign in the coming weeks. Negotiations with the remaining ACP countries are continuing, with a view to signature of interim Agreements during 2009.

In view of the interest in the Agreements which has been expressed on all sides of the House, I was very pleased to attend the recent meeting on the issues involved, which was organised by the Irish Section of the Association of European Parliamentarians for Africa (AWEPA). I took full account of the views expressed when I joined with a number of Ministers from other Member States in requesting that progress on the issue of Economic Partnership Agreements be reviewed at the meeting of the EU Development Council, which I attended in Brussels on 18 and 19 May. At the Council, which was attended by the EU Trade Commissioner, Baroness Ashton, I stressed the need to ensure the maximum degree of flexibility in these negotiations which is permissible under World Trade Organisation rules.

Ireland has consistently maintained the position that the objective must be to finalise Agreements which are supportive of the development needs of the ACP countries, and of their poverty reduction policies and programmes. I can assure the Deputy that we will continue to take a strong position, in order to ensure that a genuine partnership approach is maintained in the continuing negotiations between the Commission and its ACP counterparts.