§ Tony BaldryTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what evaluation has been carried out of the value to developing countries in Africa of the(a) United States American Growth and Opportunity Act and (b) EU Everything But Arms Initiative. [169723]
§ Hilary BennA publication of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) entitled: "Trade Preferences for LDCs: an early assessment of benefits and possible improvements" reference UNCTAD/ITCD/TSB/2003/8, published in 2003, includes an early assessment of the United States American Growth and Opportunity Act.
The Everything But Arms Initiative (EBA) is delivered through the EU's Generalised Scheme of Preferences arrangement (GSP). The GSP is subject to an annual reporting mechanism. The most recent annual report covering the period of 1 July 1999 to 31 December 2001 was produced by the European Commission on 6 June 2003. Given that the EBA initiative was introduced in March 2001, the analysis on EBA is limited in this report.
There is also some analysis, albeit limited because of similar problems in collecting the most recent data, contained in the UNCTAD publication referred to above.