Ireland - and Europe's - pledge to help poorer nations is undermined by unfair EU demands in trade talks, argues Colin Roche
Two years ago Bertie Ahern stood at the United Nations and promised that Ireland would increase aid and help promote growth in poor countries across the world. Today, while Ireland has significantly increased overseas aid, our trade policies are continuing to undermine growth and prosperity in Africa, thus eroding the value of our assistance to those living in poverty.
Since 2005 Ireland has significantly increased its overseas aid spending and the Government is now on target to meet its pledge to spend 0.7 per cent of Ireland's national income on overseas aid by 2012.
But before that happens Ireland may also have significantly damaged the prospects for developing countries to pursue growth. The next four months will be crucial to see if that happens.
For many years the European Union has offered a large number of former colonies enhanced access to sell their goods in European markets. These preferences have enabled some countries to develop important sources of employment and economic growth. At the end of this year these preferences run out.
Fortunately, for those countries who rely on the preferences to sell goods in Europe, the EU promised in 2000 to renew these preferences and offer a similar level of access. Now though, in a huge stroke of opportunism, the EU has demanded a range of concessions from many of the poorest countries in exchange for continued access.
Turning development practice on its head, the EU is now seeking hugely increased access for its exports into the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP), threatening jobs and livelihoods in some of the world's poorest countries. The extent of these demands is unprecedented.
The EU is, for example, demanding the elimination of 80 per cent of all tariffs placed on EU goods by ACP countries. Furthermore, the EU has also demanded that these countries sign up to a range of other agreements covering intellectual property, investment and much more. The impact of these agreements will almost certainly be a loss of government revenue in these countries as a result of a reduction in trade taxes, a rise in unemployment through competition from EU goods and produce, and a restricted ability for poor countries to promote industrialisation and manage their economies into the future.
Regardless of the impact on poverty, government services or the ability of poor countries to manage their economies, the EU has persisted with these policies in the face of repeated rejection by ACP countries even going so far, in a recent e-mail to Pacific nations, as to threaten the loss of aid if Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are not signed to the EU's satisfaction. (Fortunately, the EU rowed back from this threat after a vociferous response by the Pacific).
The EU has spent the last six years proclaiming its commitment to the current round of global trade talks at the World Trade Organisation. Billed as a "Development Round", it was supposed to support poor countries to use trade to escape poverty.
Instead, the talks have become a dumping ground for broken promises, brought about by the repeated demands of the richest countries for concessions from developing countries while being prepared to give little in return. Just a few weeks ago, in this newspaper, farmers and business organisations debated whether agriculture or industry should be the priority for Irish trade policy (The Irish Times, August 6th). Predictably enough both painted a rosy picture of the "concessions" the EU was making to poor countries. Neither mentioned the massive demands the EU was making nor indeed the forgotten promise of a "development round".
Recent years have seen increased efforts to tackle global poverty - with additional aid and debt relief for poor countries, including from Ireland. These efforts are being rapidly undermined by an attitude that puts increased profits over the interests of the poor - even when they live in the very poorest countries on the planet.
The global trading system continues to be fixed in favour of the wealthy, thus undermining the assistance that increased aid can bring. Ireland, as a member of the rich nations club and of the EU, bears a responsibility to level the playing pitch.
At present we're busy making it yet more uneven.
Colin Roche is Oxfam Ireland's policy and advocacy co-ordinator