Case: Policy coherence in general

23-03-2010 EU Trade Policy towards Developing Countries

On the 16th of March 2010, the Commissioner for International Trade; Karel de Gucht opened the conference on the European Union’s Trade Policy towards Developing Countries. The objective of this conference was to informally and publicly discuss how to EU’s trade policies, like the General System of Preferences (GSP), can promote further regional trade agreements with developing countries and encourage sustainable development. Fair Politics welcomed the initiative of DG trade to organise such a conference, however finds that civil society and the ACP countries were underrepresented.

Karel De Gucht’s speech, was a hopeful, optimistic and forward looking one. He spoke of the importance of aid for trade and trade for development, especially with harm done by the economic crisis. Economies need to be diversified and international trade needs to increase in order for developing countries to become less dependent and more resilient to instabilities. He was incredibly optimistic about the General System of Preferences (GSP) and GSP+ as an instrument to encourage trade and development and that he looked forward to making the necessary reforms for the upcoming years. Finally he brought the conferences attention to the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with the ACP countries. He hopes to conclude more agreements to promote the regional integration that these countries need. He does not believe that there is a one-size-fits-all solution, and that liberalizing trade is enough, but he does believe that “the poor countries stand to gain most from trade.” Despite his own optimism, the doubts about the GSP and the EPAs remained in the discussions throughout the day. To our disappointment, policy coherence for development (PCD), most importantly between trade and development policies were not part of the opening speech of De Gucht (find speech below).

Despite De Gucht not having mentioned PCD in his speech, the Spanish Secretary General for Foreign Trade, Alfredo Bonet Baiget, did mention PCD a couple of times. He emphasized the importance of PCD and that the EU should start acting result orientated towards the five priorities (trade and finance, food security, climate change, migration, security) that were concluded by the Council in November last year. Furthermore he exclaimed that trade agreements need to be more regional, more efforts need to be made to help out the most vulnerable states (by giving them technical assistance in negotiation skills for example). Finally the importance of combating climate change was on his agenda, because the effect on developing countries is going to be dramatic.

Vital Moreira, chair of the International Trade Committee at the European Parliament highlighted the EU’s constitutional obligation to uphold the eradication of poverty through free and fair trade. He was also daring, criticizing the trade agreements and negotiations of the EU today and calling for more regional and multilateral orientated approaches. The image of the EPAs need to be changed. Like all panel members he stands on fighting protectionism.

Doctor Razeen Sally, the academic on the introductory panel had a more liberal point of view especially in the context of the economic crisis caused by unregulated gabling of finance. According to him development should come second.

The rest of the conference was a continuation of the debate between regulation or deregulation, but none were against the trade agreements and all were for reform. As said in the introduction. It is unfortunate that no members of civil society were invited to speak on one of the panels. Furthermore, there were only two women invited to talk, and very little representation of third countries involved in trade agreements. Simply put, the panel consisted of white, powerful men, from politics, businesses and academia, that were not “searchers” but “planners” which , De Gucht referred to in reference to Easterly’s “searchers” and “planners” from his White Man’s Burden.

Opening Speech: Karel De Gucht