ABSTRACT

For the ACP overall, EU trade preferences are most important for agriculture commodities; for some countries (mostly non-LDC islands), manufactures are important, especially textiles and garments. Preference margins for agriculture exports to the EU have been reduced, in general because of DFQF access granted to all LDCs under Everything but Arms (EBA) and specifically for sugar and bananas as these regimes have been challenged in the WTO, but remain important. The loss of EU preferences would have immediate negative effects for ACP agricultural production (Stevens and Kennan, 2007):

• Some 267 products would face tariff jumps of over 10 per cent ad valorem. Among the products most affected would be beef, processed fruit, sugar, rice, bananas, citrus and horticulture.