The negotiations which involve the European Union (EU) and the broad group of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries were top of the agenda during the recent SADC-EU parliamentary and foreign ministers meetings in Vienna, Austria.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including Eurostep are optimistic about the outcome of the negotiations but are worried about the risks facing poor people if the civil society does not exert enough pressure on the negotiating parties.

Concerted pressure from European and ACP civil society will be needed throughout the negotiation to ensure an agreement which is ambitious enough to tackle the enormous challenges to development, and which contributes fully to enhancing the livelihoods of poor people and reduce the risk of war," says Eurostep, a coalition of European NGOs.

The Lomé Convention is an agreement that provides a framework of aid and trade between the ACP countries and the EU. It was agreed on in 1975 and will expire in February 2000, the very time by which a new framework should be in place.

The preferential treatment given to the ACP, including SADC, violates the new World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules which require that such treatment be extended to all other developing countries at the same level of development.

However, SADC along with other ACP countries, is fighting to change rules and policies which could exclude poor and vulnerable economies and block international collaboration for achieving objectives such as the eradication of poverty through sustainable development as set out in the international commitments made at Rio de Janeiro, Copenhagen, Beijing and Cairo.

Many analysts say if developing countries are expected to be at the same level of development as the industrialised, there is need for a gradual exposure to international competition, and not an "overnight" change as required by the WTO.

SADC and most ACP states are in agreement that if the status quo cannot be maintained, a ten-year waiver should be sought to allow affected countries adequate time to position themselves for the new world order.

The EU has over the years been an important destination for SADC exports such as beef and sugar under the Lomé trade provisions. SADC member states have between 20-50 percent of their exports directed to the EU where the margins of preferences are superior to all other preferential trade arrangements extended to developing nations by the developed countries.