EDD16 - The Treatment of Food Standards in mega-regional trade agreements

The tenth edition of the European Development Days (EDD 2016) took place in Tour & Taxi on 15-16 June 2016. The EU-ACP Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), TradeCom II Programme and the EU-ACP Technical Barriers to Trade Programme (TBT) jointly organised two debates at the EDD2016 on pressing development issues in the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP).

The panel of the event “The Treatment of Food Standards in mega-regional trade agreements” found the contributions of high level experts such as Mr. Jean-Pierre Halkin (Head of Unit, Rural Development, Food & Nutrition Security, DG Europaid, European Commission) Mr. Donald Mmari (Executive Director, REPOA - Policy Research for Development), Mr. Edwin Laurent (Director, Ramphal Institute), Ms. Catherine Grant (Research Associate TRALAC) and Mr. Jacky Le Gosles (Senior Expert, DG Health and Food Safety, European Commission), expressing their respective insights on what recent global trade developments mean for ACP development. The rules governing global trade are defined by mega-RTAs such TTIP (Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) and RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership), with important development implications for the ACP in terms of full integration into global value chains, capacity to negotiate regulatory frameworks, and ACP producers’ ability to meet compliance costs, including tighter food standards.

The two events were thought by all the participants to have been a great success in terms of participation and quality of discussion.