46 ■ ICCO REPORT
C&CI
There is nothing like a
March 2010 deadline to concentrate
New ICCA may be
minds, as delegates to
the latest International
Cocoa Organization finalised in April
(ICCO) talks in London
on a new co-operation expire on September 30 this
agreement between
year, but one further final exten-
sion of two years from then is
cocoa exporting and
permitted, which the ICCO’s rul-
importing countries can
ing council is scheduled to
confirm
approve at its session in the
Cameroonian capital Yaoundé
on March 22-26. Vingerhoets’s
contract runs out at the same
"T
here was a sense of urgency," time as the pact and the upcom-
said the agency’s Executive ing meeting will also consider
Director, Jan Vingerhoets, with the the question of what should hap-
result that the week-long meeting was pen then.
"very successful", thanks to the "co-opera-
tive attitude" shown by both sides.
The conference to finalize the text of the
What now for
new International Cocoa Agreement
Executive
The issue of sustainability boils
(ICCA) will take place at UNCTAD’s
down to a reluctance on the part
of producers to find themselves
Geneva headquarters on April 19-23.
Director?
disproportionately burdened with
Delegates acknowledge that, unless con- It was unclear at the time of writ-
the responsibilities and costs of
producing sustainable cocoa
siderable progress has been made ing whether he would seek a
beforehand in settling differences, suc- two-year extension – or whether
cess then may prove elusive. No provi- if he did this would be accept-
sion, they note, has been made for a sec- able to member governments.
ond conference. While there is general agreement
that Vingerhoets has been a very
Fast-approaching
successful chief executive at the ICCO, the London and the draft new ICCA as so far
tradition at such agencies is that if its head- agreed states that that the city will remain
deadline
quarters are based in an importer member its home "unless the Council by special
Time is therefore running out fast to clinch country then the top job is held by a nation- votes decides otherwise." However, in the
a deal that will determine relations between al from a producing country, invariably the past, several other countries, apart from
cocoa importing and exporting countries most important. It is no secret that Côte Côte d’Ivoire, both importing and exporting
into the next decade, and probably beyond, d’Ivoire believes that one of its nationals ICCO members, have offered the ICCO a
as, once the text of the treaty has been should have the top ICCO post, if not from new home and there is always the possibili-
agreed, it could easily take some countries this September then at least from the start- ty that they may reissue their invitations.
well over a year to complete the necessary up of a new ICCA if the agency’s head- Where the agency will be based over the
legal process to bring the accord into force quarters are to stay in London. longer term is therefore far from certain.
– first government signature and then often At the preparatory talks on the new ICCA
ratification by the legislature. The experi- held in London on January 11-15, the struc-
ence with the new International Coffee Ivorien for top post? ture of the new ICCA were agreed, as were
Agreement underlines this forcibly (see Last year, the Ivorien government withdrew its 11 objectives, which underline the ambi-
C&CI, November 2009, page 20). its invitation to the ICCO to move to a new tious role that member countries want to
The present 2001 ICCA, which, like its home in Abidjan, although, significantly, the set for the agency (see box), and the bulk
predecessors back to the first in 1972, formal letter to the agency required to of the its articles. The most tricky matters
establishes the ICCO as the forum for finalise this (see C&CI, November 2009, still to be settled – which may well be con-
international co-operation on cocoa, can- page 46) had not yet been received by late sidered in Yaoundé, where one day has
not continue beyond September 30th February. There is a suspicion, delegates been set aside for discussing the provi-
2012. If there is no new ICCA in place by said, that the country is unwilling to act until sions of the new ICCA - are those concern-
then, then the ICCO will be doomed. While the question of the top ICCO post has ing the ICCO’s role in advancing the cause
such a bleak scenario seems highly been resolved. of a sustainable cocoa economy and what
unlikely, it cannot be ignored. It is clear that, for the next two years at part NGOs should be allowed to play in the
The 2001 ICCA is currently scheduled to least, the ICCO will be staying put in agency’s operations.
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