H. Dillum : Post-Cotonou Agreement, Brexit, and economic diplomacy… A perspective from Brussels
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The Mauritius-European Union (UE) relations, indeed, date back to the early 1970s with the conclusion of the ACP-EEC Lomé Convention I – between the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of states and the European Economic Community – and its related Sugar Protocol. The Lomé I-IV Conventions were a precursor to the present ACP-EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA), signed in 2000, within which the ACP-EU relations continue to be framed and conducted.
It is amply documented that through the Lomé Conventions and the CPA, Mauritius and the EU have built a longstanding and showcasing partnership for more than 40 years and spreading across a wide compass of areas of transformative socio-economic development. Suffice to mention that the EU captures about 70% of our exports and is the source of around 50% of tourist arrivals. In the past eight years, it has provided Mauritius with some 350 million €, mainly in the form of direct budget support (reflecting the EU’s trust in our good governance records and sound macro-economic fundamentals), as development grants and as accompanying measures following the termination of the Sugar Protocol. Besides, regular Mauritius-EU political dialogue, on bilateral and international issues, features strongly in this relationship, to wit the fourth Political Dialogue was held in Port Louis in January 2016.
Outside the framework of the CPA, the Mauritius-EU Fishing Partnership Agreement, on which negotiations for a new protocol are on the right track, and the Mauritius-EU Visa Waiver Agreement for short stays not exceeding 90 days are also key assets of Mauritius-EU connections.
Under the CPA, a new template of World Trade Organization (WTO)-compatible regional trading arrangements, the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) have been established. In essence, EPAs are comprehensive trade and development agreements driven by the objectives of poverty reduction, economic diversification, employment generation through enhanced intra-regional integration and a managed opening towards the world economy.
Given the high stakes involved, Mauritius assiduously participated in the EPA negotiations at the conceptual level and then at that of the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) configuration. In 2009, an Interim EPA (IEPA) was signed between the EU and four of the ESA countries, namely Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Zimbabwe, and efforts are under way to deepen and consolidate the IEPA, which is effective, into a comprehensive EPA – one that will cover all development areas of high interest to Mauritius.
We need, as always, to take a balanced view. Indeed and as elsewhere, the relationship has its challenges. These include the likely adverse impacts on the ACP sugar industry of the expiry of the sugar and isoglucose production quotas in the EU as from the 1st October 2017 and the thorny issue of including – unjustifiably so – Mauritius in the so-called “pan-EU list” (which is to be replaced by a “common list”) of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions on which discussions are ongoing.
However, the strength of this relationship and the friendship and the bedrock of common values, such as respect for human rights, and the mutual respect which underpin and bind it are powerful tools in our joint efforts to overcome these challenges, not only for continued ACP-EU partnership showcasing purposes, but also in the higher strategic interests of both parties.
In February 2020, the CPA will expire and a new relationship (a “post-Cotonou” successor agreement in Brussels jargon) will have to be designed. Both the EU and the ACP are engaged in a deep and vibrant reflection process on such a post-Cotonou agreement, on which formal negotiations will begin around September/October 2018.
The common understanding, of which Mauritius is a prime advocate, in these two reflection processes, is that in an unpredictable world, there is need to strengthen, rather than diminish, the modes of four decades of structured cooperation and its joint ownership character which have served the two sides well, and the post-Cotonou arrangement must build on the CPA acquis. Furthermore and as again propounded by Mauritius, the new arrangement should maintain the legally binding and joint decision-making character of the partnership, its predictable financing element through development cooperation instrument (the “12th EDF”) and be aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and possibly the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
An area of common concern on the two sides has to do with Brexit and its impact on the ACP-EU relationship. It is clear that a first assessment of full implications of Brexit will not be known until the UK-EU negotiations (likely to be triggered by the end of March 2017 when the UK will invoke Article 50 of the EU Lisbon Treaty) have made some headway. In the meantime, Mauritius has been making, persistently, pressing calls to the ACP group for a systematic impact analysis and recommendations for courses of action by the group as a whole, by regions and individual member states, for engagement at various levels. It is gratifying that the calls of Mauritius are being heeded to.
For the ACP group, established 43 years ago in Georgetown, Guyana, and held up by a numerical strength of its 79 member states with a total population of 900 million+, an added layer of reflection is its longstanding aspiration to transform and re-position itself as an independent and financially self-reliant tri-continental organization. An organization united by solidarity on major issues related to global trade, political engagement, governance and mutually beneficial development cooperation; strongly intent on exploring sustainable partnerships with other non-EU entities for building on South-South and triangular cooperation.
The pursuit of our sugar diplomacy, although nowadays more nuanced in the absence of the Sugar Protocol and its in-built three guarantees (price, volume and obligation to buy) and in view of the impending abolition of EU sugar and isoglucose production quotas in October 2017, continues. There is a new focus, though, on the preservation of the niche market for our special sugars and on securing funding for Phase II of the ACP Sugar Research Programme as well as for the implementation of the recommendations of a recent study on ACP sugar suppliers [including Mauritius] undertaken by Cardno/LMC.
Mauritius is also closely involved in the ongoing post-Cotonou debates with due regard to the development finance cooperation dimension of the new agreement, with relentless calls that the questionable GDP-based criteria (a key component of the EU Official Development Assistance – ODA – policy based on “differentiation” principles) should not be used to discriminate against Mauritius. In other words, Mauritius should not be penalized for its remarkable socio-economic achievements but should, on the very contrary, be fully supported in its efforts to successfully overcome its middle income trap, as outlined in the Vision 2030 propounded by the former Prime Minister and current Minister Mentor.
Furthermore, Mauritius is closely monitoring developments on the recent EU proposal for establishing a new External Investment Plan (EIP) for Africa to which € 3.35 billion would be dedicated in the hope of mobilizing some € 44 billion from development finance institutions (it is expected that this figure should rise up to € 88 billion if the EU member states, individually, agree to chip in). The EIP is meant for boosting investments in Africa and the EU neighbourhood countries, in particular to support social and economic infrastructure and small and medium enterprises, by addressing obstacles to private investment.
As an innovative financing mode, the EIP is of interest to Mauritius for itself and for the Mauritius Africa strategy. In this respect, during his official visit to Brussels in December 2016, our minister Vishnu Lutchmeenaraidoo invited his high-level EU interlocutors to seriously consider modalities for routing investments in Africa through Mauritius, particularly with respect to the investments that would be involved for the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) being developed by Mauritius in identified African countries. The minister has placed economic diplomacy as one of the strategic pillars of our foreign policy and the Ministry of Fo-reign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade has, accordingly, streamlined various disciplines of economic diplomacy it its work programme.
In this respect, Mauritius, through the embassy in Brussels, is also daily engaged in enhancing business connecti-vity with the Benelux countries. For instance, the embassy has been closely involved in the forthcoming economic mission of an important business delegation from the Belgian Francophone apex private sector federation, Awex (Agencewallonne à l’exportation et aux investissementsétrangers).
In a global strategic landscape characterized by powerful hierarchy changes, a new paradigm in the interplay of nation states with old divides and mindsets re-emerging, with strong integration models such as the EU being shaken from within and outside, with slogans bearing “My Country First” and related protectionist syndromes at the middle of ongoing technological and digital revolutions, paradoxically reinforcing the interdependence of countries, no relationship, historical and privileged as it might be, can be taken for granted.
Our diplomacy has to navigate in these troubled waters so as to preserve and consolidate our hard-won gains, including the safeguard of the Mauritius national interests, in line with our evolving strategic imperatives referred to above.
