ACP states: time to stand up and be counted.

I was recently invited to attend a conference in Amsterdam on behalf of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries, organised by the Europe-based Focus Consultancy. The theme of the conference was the condition, treatment and status of migrants from ACP states in Europe.

All the 85 member states of the ACP are former colonies of various European powers and thus share considerable cultural, political and socio-economic ties with respective European states. The bulk of trade from the ACP is with the 15 member states of the EU who comprise the biggest trading block in the world. Trade and other relations between the two groupings are set out in successive Lome Conventions. The first, Lome I, was signed in 1976; the latest, Lome IV, was signed in 1991 and will run until February 2000.

The conventions give ACP states privileged trade and cooperation arrangements with the EU. For example, agricultural and industrial goods from ACP states enter Europe duty-free and there are special sugar protocols to guarantee a quota of exports. The EU also compensates ACP states for losses due to falls in earnings from their commodities through two funds: Stabex for agricultural goods and Sysmin for solid mineral exports.

On paper this looks like a wonderful marriage with the EU bending over backwards to assist the development of its former colonial territories. In practice, it is another matter altogether. Take the Fisheries Agreement for example. In return for cash payments, EU states, Russia, Japan and Korea have unlimited rights to plunder ACP state waters.

So much sea-life has been taken out and so indiscriminately, that ACP states which depended considerably on their seaboard marine wealth are facing a crisis. Morocco pulled out of the agreement; several other countries, deeply concerned about the environmental damage to their fishing grounds, wanted to do away with it altogether. A Joint Fisheries Monitoring Committee has been formed to look into the issue and make recommendations for major changes in the regulations.

This is only one of the areas in which the same agreements and protocols are used to great advantage by one party: The European Union, at the expense of the ACE Although the Lome Conventions are negotiated at some length, there is little doubt that while Europe comes prepared and armed to the negotiating table, the ACP states tend to walk in either partially sighted or driven by narrow nationalistic motives.

Herded out

This brings us back to the conference and the presence of ACP citizens in Europe. By coincidence, the conference took place barely a week after the French police stormed a church in France where hundreds of, mostly African, migrants had taken refuge; they were driven out like cattle before being forcibly repatriated to their countries of origin.

During the conference, I discovered to my amazement, that out of a total population of over 300m in Europe, ACP migrants represent only one million. Yet the publicity and venom that has been directed against these "illegal" African migrants is such that one would imagine several million of them spreading into all corners of Europe.

The French exercise was nothing more than thinly disguised racism. The Africans were made scape-goats in internal political battles and used as an example to hoist before other, more numerous groups of illegal migrants. While no one can dictate what a sovereign country's immigration policy should be, there is a civilised manner in which to treat people. This civility is denied to Africans because their home governments are seen as weak and ineffectual.

What was most encouraging during the conference was the number of African ambassadors who pledged to take the issue to their home governments and demand a more human treatment for their citizens. Many of the ambassadors recounted stories of how they themselves had been humiliated at border crossings and check-points.

The lesson that came out of the conference was that if you do not champion and uphold the humanity and rights of your own citizens, no matter where they are, you lose clout in the international arena. You lose your negotiating power.

These issues, one hopes, will be uppermost in the minds of ACP ministers and their representatives as negotiations build up for whatever new regime will come into force, after the expiry of Lome IV in 2000. As it is, after the Uruguay round of the Gatt agreement, international trade has been liberalised to such an extent that the ACP is unlikely to gain any advantage from its Lome privileges: It might be much better off if its hands and feet were not bound by agreements which gain little anyway.

Is it really surprising that despite four successive Lome Conventions, ACP exports to Europe have declined from 6.7% in 1976 to 3.4% in 1993?

It is now time for the ACP states, particularly Africa which comprises the majority of nations within it, begin to look outside the EU and their traditional, lowly role in the relationship. World trade is growing is growing at around 8%, representing trade in goods of some $4,000bn and in services of another $1,000bn. The ACP states' exports to the EU in contrast, stand at a mere $25-30bn. The action is obviously elsewhere.

If the EU wants to maintain special relationships with the ACP, it will have to come up with more equitable agreements and must start thinking of the ACP states in terms of equal partnerships. Europe can begin by treating ACP citizens within its border with the same humanity, civility and justice its own citizens expect when they live or work in ACP states.