TOP officials of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states and the European Union (EU) yesterday concluded a recent string of bilateral meetings, with a joint ministerial meeting in Brussels, paving the way for new trading arrangements between the two blocs.

Jamaica was represented at the meeting which focused on the emerging Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) by undersecretary for trade in the foreign ministry, Lorne McDonnough, while the EU delegation was led by Commissioners Peter Mandelson and Louis Michel.

The EPAs will replace the Cotonou Agreement, the successor to the Lomé Convention which governed trade and aid between Europe and its present and former colonies in the ACP.

Negotiators have stressed that under the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Europe must dispense with the preferential trading arrangements it has with the ACP, and replace it with Economic Partnership Agreements on a reciprocal basis.

“Over the past month, the EU and ACP regions have agreed on the overriding importance of shaping the EPAs into trade and development agreements that will boost and diversify ACP economies,” the organisers said.

They also agreed on the importance of reaching agreement on the text of new agreements by the beginning of 2008, when the WTO waiver protecting existing arrangements will expire.

Further, the parties agreed on the importance of the “widest possible market access” to the European market for ACP regions, adding to the 97 per cent duty-free or reduced-duty access already granted by the EU.

Both sides agreed as well on the importance of ensuring that substantial financial resources were made available to assist in the implementation of the EPAs from the European Union as a whole and from individual member states.