Ireland should back a comprehensive review of the European Union's free trade deals with the world's poorest countries, it was claimed today.
Oxfam has warned that EU free-trade agreements with regions in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific countries were unfair.
The international agency has urged the EU to begin negotiating its position on free trade deals or risk plunging some of the poorest regions into further poverty.
Oxfam said Ireland should back a revision of the European Commission's mandate to reflect key concerns from poorer regions and civil society groups.
"It's clear that the European Commission's position needs to be seriously revised. Many African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries are deeply concerned about the way negotiations of these free trade deals are going," Colin Roche, Oxfam Ireland's Campaigns and Advocacy Executive, said. "The future of some of the world's poorest people is at stake and Europe refuses to heed their concerns. That is simply unacceptable."
In a report entitled 'Unequal Partners', Oxfam said the proposed Economic Partnership Agreements would hurt rather than aid the ACP countries.
The agency said EPAs threaten to expose farmers in developing countries to direct and unfair competition with highly subsidised EU producers. Oxfam warns that key ACP concerns are being ignored.
It claimed Europe was pressuring ACP governments to include competition policy, investment, and government procurement in the final agreement, despite repeated objections from developing countries to this.
PA