African minister accuses EU of bad faith over trade

COTONOU, Feb 22 (Reuters) Benin's trade minister accused the European Union today of bad faith and manipulation in negotiating regional trade accords with poor countries, saying Brussels had misled the public.

A joint statement published in Brussels after a Feb. 5 meeting of chief negotiators from West African countries and the European Union said the two sides agreed to abide by an end-2007 deadline for negotiating an Economic Partnership Agreement.

But Benin's Trade Minister Soumanou Moudjaidou, who was at the meeting, said no such agreement had been made and said Africa stood by a demand for a three-year delay to allow time to negotiate key provisions and allay African concerns.

"The European Union wants to manipulate the press," said Moudjaidou, whose country has taken a lead in trade talks, especially in campaigning for an end to Western cotton subsidies blamed for keeping millions of African farmers poor.

Moudjaidou said African Union ministers had agreed in Addis Ababa in January on a common demand to delay the deadline for negotiating four EU regional trade accords on the continent until December 31, 2010.

"That is why we say that our friends at the European Union are acting in bad faith," he told Reuters in an interview.

Brussels says the accords must be in place before the Dec.

31, 2007, expiry of a World Trade Organisation exemption on preferential market access granted by the EU to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries under a pre-existing deal the WTO says breaks its rules.

Moudjaidou said he and fellow African trade ministers would meet EU negotiators in Brussels on Feb. 26.

"We are going to say we do not agree with the European Union, which is trying to manipulate public opinion," he said.

European Commission officials insisted on Thursday that Western African organisations had agreed in the joint statement on February 5. to work to meet the end-2007 deadline.

"It was not a legal commitment but a political commitment to make all efforts to conclude within the deadline," one said.

The joint statement said the EU and West Africa had finalised the negotiations' preparatory phase and agreed to start negotiating market offers and draft the agreement.

The statement mentioned the end-2007 deadline for the signing of the agreement, saying both parties had reaffirmed their commitment to agree on compensatory funding and market access "as a prior condition".

MORE TIME The talks were launched more than four years ago but have made little progress.

African countries say they need more time to negotiate with Brussels on making their industries more competitive and financing their budget shortfalls as they cut import tariffs under the deals, designed to lead eventually to free trade.

The EU and its executive Commission have promised developing countries 2 billion euros a year from 2010 to be spent on training, infrastructure and easier export procedures.

Many developing countries say the EU is too aggressive in its demands for concluding EPAs, which Brussels denies.

"When you have a deal, you have at least two people, at least two parties. So if at an African level ... nobody is ready, we will not sign," Moudjaidou said.

REUTERS SAM HT2204