JAMAICA will today assume the presidency of the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Council of Ministers. The country's chairmanship expires on January 31, 2005.

Jamaica's nomination by the Caribbean group was endorsed by the wider ACP Group.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade K D Knight will preside over the council, as well as over the Ministerial Bureau - the executive arm of the council. Minister Knight will therefore be in the chair for the 80th ACP Council meeting in November.

During the period of its ACP presidency, Jamaica will chair the ACP Committee of Ambassadors in Brussels, and the Bureau of the Committee through Evadne Coye, Ambassador to the European Union.

The presidency rotates between the six regional gr oups of the ACP - Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa, the Pacific and CARIFORUM (Caricom and the Dominican Republic.)

The foreign ministry said yesterday that Jamaica has assumed the presidency of the ACP Ministerial Council at an important phase of the ACP/EU relations, as the partners redefine their relationship through negotiation of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) which will succeed the preferential agreements developed from Lomé I to the Cotonou Agreement.

"The ACP will engage in serious dialogue with the EU on the reform of the sugar regime. Jamaica will also preside over negotiations on the review of the Cotonou Agreement," a ministry statement said.

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