Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-24-Speech-3-238"
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"en.20030924.6.3-238"2
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"Madam President, I declare an interest as a farmer receiving agricultural subsidies. But today I specifically want to speak in defence of the weaker developing countries, particularly those in the ACP. To me, Cancún should have been the culmination of months of serious work in committee, thrashing out answers to the doubts and fears of the developing world. To expect to sit down with 148 countries and reach any conclusion is beyond any possibility, but I believe that Cancún was a watershed.
The days of powerful blocs such as the European Union and the USA sitting in smoke-filled rooms, carving up the spoils and throwing a few crumbs to the rest of the world, have long since gone. Developing countries have realised that there is strength in numbers and power in using that strength. But this is not just a matter of the developing and the developed world. There are different strata in both groupings. Economically, Asia, the Far East and Latin America are light-years away from the ACP countries. Countries' trade potential will develop at different speeds.
Successes for the future depend on flexibility of timing. Opt-outs were offered as essential ingredients at Cancún and must be part of any future plan. Capacity to enact what has been agreed is a key factor.
The ACP is, at this moment, negotiating a Cotonou partnership agreement on trade to be agreed by 2008. Economic partnership agreements and regional economic partnership agreements are the eventual aim of those negotiations. Most of those countries are not ready for reciprocal trade agreements or rules on competition; but regional integration would give them strength in a global world and increase south/south trade. The ACP countries could not cope with Cotonou and Cancún at the same time. For them Cancún was a step too far, too soon. Now we must have a complete reassessment of procedures."@en1
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