West Africa Road Map toward Hong Kong 2005

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West Africa Road Map toward Hong Kong 2005
Mouhamet Lamine Ndiaye Regional Trade Campaign Of
ficer
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West Africa Road Map toward Hong Kong 2005

• 1. End dumping
• 2. Flexible tariff regime
• 3. Stop EPA in its current form
• 4. Adequate Special and differential treatment

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• Background
• Out of the 15 countries in West Africa, 12 are
  classified as Least Developed Countries (LDCs)
  
• The agricultural sector is the principal source
  of employment for West African region 60 of all
  West African live in rural areas and draw their
  resources from agricultural activities
• It contributes as much as 35 of regional GDP as
  well as 15.3 of all goods and services exports
  of the region
  

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• Background (Contd)
• 10-15 million small farmers in West and Central
  Africa live directly from cotton production
  usually carried out alongside food production and
  animal rearing in small-scale family based
  agricultural enterprises
• The HK ministerial is the major focus of the Make
  Trade Fair campaign in 2005 because OI sees this
  as a major opportunity for world leaders to take
  major decisions regarding the future of global
  trade rules and whether they will be
  fundamentally altered to promote development and
  poverty reduction

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OI West Africa Objective for HK 2005
1. End dumping / Trade distorting subsidies
Cotton West African governments continue to pursu
e an end to cotton subsidies in WTO and play an
active role in defining measures to strengthen
their power to decide in negotiations on
agriculture (to end 2005)
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OI West Africa Objective for HK 2005

• 1. End dumping / Trade distorting subsidies
  (Contd)
  
• cotton
• How we will achieve this in 2005
• Harmonised position of West African government
  (UEMOA and ECOWAS),
  
• Recognition of damage of subsidies on cotton
  farmers and agreement on implementation of cotton
  panel,
  
• An emergency fund is agreed for the African
  cotton and / or external development funds are
  made available to enable minimal price stability
  and support to small West African cotton farmers

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OI West Africa Objective for HK 2005

• 2. Flexible tariff regime in ECOWAS to promote
  food security and develop the agricultural
  sector
  
• Rice and other staple foods
• How we will achieve this in 2005
• West African governments (Nigeria, Senegal,
  Ghana, Burkina) and Regional institutions define
  strategic agricultural sector for tariff and
  other protection,
• Feed negotiators with existing research to
  support argument for protection of strategic
  agricultural sector (Rice, poultry and other
  staple food),

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OI West Africa Objective for HK 2005

• 3. Stop EPA in their current form
• Reform Art 24 of the WTO substantially all trade
  and not exclude any major sector
  
• Art 24 stipulates that any regional grouping that
  decide to become Customs Unions with CET must
  see these only as interim phase on the way
  towards becoming open free trade areas.

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OI West Africa Objective for HK 2005

• 3. Stop EPA in their current form (Contd)
• Reform Art 24 of the WTO substantially all trade
  and not exclude any major sector
  
• How we will achieve this
• Develop alternatives to EPAs
• Launch a campaign against art. 24 in Nigeria,
  Senegal, Ghana, Burkina, Niger, Mali and Benin,
  

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OI West Africa Objective for HK 2005

• 4. Adequate Special and differential treatment
  for WA countries to have the power to decide the
  pace and scale of opening of their market (agric,
  industries and services)
• How we will achieve this
• West African govts to propose flexible rules,
• SDT for the Non LDCs in West Africa

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OI West Africa Objective for HK 2005

• Popular Mobilisation
• Popular mobilisation and campaigning tools will
  be developed jointly with partners to reach wider
  audience
  
• How we will achieve this
• The big noise has grown to a total of 3.5 million
  signatures in West Africa (1 000 000 for Ghana,
  Nigeria and Senegal 500 000 for Burkina by end
  2005
• Celebrities photos shoots in Nigeria, Senegal,
  Burkina, Ghana widely dispatch in WA and beyond
  

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OI West Africa Objective for HK 2005

• Lobbying
• Identify entry points and keep updated power
  analysis as regard to key ministries, ECOWAS and
  WAEMU using strategic CS partners to lobby in
  Geneva, Brussels, USA, and national capitals
• How we will achieve this
• Use strategic partners to lobby in national
  capital
  
• Nigeria NTN, NLC, NANTS, etc
• Senegal ENDA, AA, FNPC, CNCR, FONGS, etc
• Ghana GAWU, TWN, AA, ISODEC
• Burkina UNPCB, ABC Burkina, CPA, etc 

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OI West Africa Objective for HK 2005

• Alliances
• Cotton
• We should develop alliances in a special way
  with
  
• AProCA and its national members to play a
  leading role in lobbying and popular mobilisation
  around cotton
  
• Research orgs CIRAD, REPA INERA, LARES
• NGOs and Civil Society groups ENDA Dialogues
  Politiques, ACORD, GRET, Agir Ici, ICTS, IDEAS
  
• Governments and regional organizations C4,
  Senegal WAEMU, ECOWAS
  
• Private Sector ACA, Sodifitex, CMDT, Dagris
• Donors German, Swiss cooperation, French
  Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DFID, Sweden,
  

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OI West Africa Objective for HK 2005

• Alliances (Contd)
• Rice
• ROPPA as the lead to the regional rice strategy
• PRIAF who will elaborate trainings for farmers
  orgs from may to December 2005
  
• Others
• Consumers Orgs
• Trade Unions,
• Media
• Celebrities

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OI West Africa Objective for HK 2005

• Key Targets
• West African trade ministers (Mali, Burkina Faso,
  Senegal, Benin, Chad, Ghana, Nigeria) and
  regional organizations to develop coordinated
  negotiating positions/ demands and also on
  privatisation/ liberalization policies and to
  review the CET in order to harmonize with ECOWAP
  
• Multilateral donors (WB, IMF, FAO) involved in
  cotton sector support and reform in WA region (HQ
  and country/regional programmes)
  
• West African countries ambassadors in Brussels
• MPs of West African countries in trade and
  agriculture commissions
  

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Key moments on the road to HK
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Key moments on the road to HK (Contd)
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Wish Id gotten in on the cotton case when Oxfam
asked me

Guess Ill have to stop subsidising American
cotton farmers.