Luanda – The Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) on Friday, in Luanda, reaffirmed its collective commitment to ensure continued access to traditional markets and explore new opportunities for the private sector.
According to the Luanda Declaration, released at the end of the summit, the commitment aims to strengthen trade relations and stimulate job creation, growth and investment among the organization’s states.
The OACPS, which will be headed by the Angolan President, João Lourenço, for the next three years, assumed the commitment to establishing alliances with traditional and strategic partners for a coordinated approach in multilateral commercial negotiations on market access.
It valued cooperation in training and the development of standards aimed to improve the productive capacity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the countries of the organization.
The meeting called on the European Union (EU) to provide measures in the form of technical and financial support to producers, exporters and national authorities in the OACPS countries to comply with the new market access requirements.
In the document, the OACPS calls on the World Trade Organization (WTO) to ensure equal treatment for all members, with the aim to level up the competition conditions for Small Island Developing States and landlocked countries.
According to the Declaration, the OACPS states commit themselves to working with international partners to promote regional economic integration through the “cumulative application” of rules of origin.
The organization reaffirms the importance of effective enforcement of intellectual property rights in combination with traditional knowledge, culture and folklore as a means of wealth generation.
Climate Change, Covid-19, and the War in Ukraine
In the face of the crises caused by the Covid-19, climate change, and the war in Ukraine, member states have committed themselves to pursuing inclusive, ecological, and sustainable economic recovery by creating jobs from micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises.
The goal is to achieve resilient economic growth in a peaceful and secure environment.
They pledged, in the document, to adopt sustainable systems of access to food and energy supplies to meet environmental challenges.
The member states urge development partners to support economic transformation, facilitated investment and fulfillment of their obligations.
These are obligations regarding climate finance, the document says, as well as access to technology and knowledge sharing for rapid economic recovery.
In the document that emerged from the Luanda meeting, the OACPS countries expressed interest in deepening and strengthening economic, political, social and cultural relations among themselves.
They chose trade, science and technology, industry, transport, communications and education, as areas of cooperation to be strengthened. It includes training, research, information, communication, environment, demography, and human resources.
The participants called on international partners to take political action to reduce the hardships of people affected by the current global crises and to mitigate the impact of rising oil and food prices.
The call from the countries of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States also aims to accelerate debt relief and the equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.
They expressed willingness to cooperate for disaster risk reduction and called on developed countries to make available the100 billion US dollars and double adaptation funding by 2025.
The OACPS member states considered it urgent reforms in the global financial system for simplified access to subsidized finance for OACPS members, taking into account their vulnerabilities.
Conference on Biological Diversity
The OACPS welcomed the holding of the second part of the 15th Conference on the Convention on Biological Diversity, which aims to adopt a new global framework for nature management by 2030.
The organization advocated for the recovery of degraded ecosystems and the adoption of a post-2020 global framework to halt biodiversity loss and promote sustainable use for the benefit of people and the planet.
The Luanda Declaration indicates that participants agreed to promote national food systems that facilitate sustainable and locally oriented food production to assist small-scale producers (farmers and fishers).
The Summit supported the United Nations General Assembly resolution 74/299 on improving road safety and reducing road deaths by at least 50% by 2030, as well as implementing policies to ensure safe, affordable and sustainable mobility to educate young people.
The organization lamented that the European Union’s unilateral approach through the listing policy to combat tax evasion, money laundering and terrorist financing poses problems that need to be addressed in a spirit of partnership.
Exchanges with strategic partners
The OACPS countries, a total of 79, considered it essential to create a platform for regular exchanges with strategic partners, through South-South and North-South cooperation, with focus on achieving the development agenda.
The Luanda summit welcomed the creation of the OACPS Platform for Diaspora Engagement, encouraged collaboration with multilateral organizations, the EU, and national and regional platforms.
According to the Declaration, participants reiterated their commitment to the historic and strategic partnership with the EU and suggested the provisional application of the new ACP-EU agreement, before the expiration of the transitional measures of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement (Benin).
They called on the EU to provide accompanying measures, in the form of technical and financial support to producers, exporters and national authorities of the OACPS countries to allow better access to markets.
Equal treatment of States
The OACPS urged the World Labor Organization to ensure equal treatment of states in order to level the playing field for developing small States Island.
The OACPS said it hopes that the WTO will also establish a system that allows them to benefit from a share of trade growth proportional to their economic development needs.
Participants expressed satisfaction with the framework program developed by the EACP/EU to empower value chain actors by facilitating access to finance and capacity building.
According to the Luanda Declaration, the 11th Summit should take place on a date to be decided by the Council of Ministers of the OACPS, in consultation with the President of the 10th Summit and the authorities of the future host country.
Source: Angola Press News Agency