CTA, http://agritrade.cta.int/, June 2008
This executive brief reviews the scope of the CAP: its basic structure, product coverage, objectives and evolution since 1992. The review of the CAP reform process highlights:
- the shift in policy emphasis from the quantity of EU agricultural production to the quality of EU agricultural and food products and the different aspects of the ‘quality’ dimension;
- the growing role of rural-development policy and instruments within the CAP and its interface with wider processes of CAP reform;
the link between the CAP-reform process and EU positions in agricultural negotiations in the WTO, particularly the relationship to the ultimate aim of bringing EU agricultural prices down towards world-market price levels.
The section on the impact of CAP reform on ACP-EU agricultural trade focuses on:
- the impact of CAP reform on the value of traditional ACP trade preferences;
- the need for ACP exporters to respond proactively to changes within EU markets for food and agricultural products;
- the importance for ACP authorities and private-sector operators of getting to grips with the food-safety challenge and the increasing costs of accessing the EU market;
- the trends in EU exports of agricultural and simple value-added food products to ACP markets;
- the importance of developing an effective policy response to the competitive challenges this poses and the necessity for this to encompass a value-chain analysis if it is to support the development of local value-added agricultural and food-product production in ACP countries.
Author(s): Agritrade