HC Deb 30 March 1999 vol 328 cc569-70W
Mr. Nicholas Winterton

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps were taken by his Department to revise European Union policy to protect the United Kingdom's trading relationship with Caribbean countries within World Trade Organisation rules during the period of the United Kingdom presidency. [79096]

Mr. Wilson

The UK's trading relationship with the Caribbean forms part of the wider EU relationship with the ACP countries (sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific) enshrined in the Lomé Convention. This provides a framework for trade, aid and political relations with the ACP. Under Lomé, ACPs have open access to the EU market for industrial goods and for a wide range of agricultural products.

The current (fourth) Lomé Convention expires in 2000. A negotiating mandate for a new Convention was adopted under the UK Presidency at the General Affairs Council (GAC) on 29 June 1998. The Commission's draft mandate suggested that these new arrangements, after a 5-year roll-over of current arrangements to 2005, should be in the form of Free Trade Areas between the EU and groups (yet to be defined) of ACP countries. In response to the concerns of the UK and some other member states, the mandate as agreed by the Council commits us to examine the position of those ACPs not able to join in FTAs, in order to provide a new framework for trade which will offer them equivalent access to the EU market as at present under Lomé. Whatever the final balance of arrangements, the EU will of course have to ensure that they are compatible with WTO rules.

Those ACP countries who are unable or unwilling to enter into FTA negotiations will still be eligible for the EU Generalised System of Preferences scheme which offers entry into the EU market with reduced import tariffs. However, these provisions are not as generous as Lomé and the ACP have expressed concern that they will lose their market access. The UK as Presidency worked hard to ensure a mandate which clearly indicated that the ACP would retain equivalent market access under the GSP and that GSP terms would need to be improved during the review of the scheme in 2004.

We believe that these revisions reflect the interests of the Caribbean and our other Lomé partners.