46 • ICCO Report • C&CI March 2012
Slow progress made towards new ICCA
Progress on bringing the International Cocoa Organization’s new cocoa pact into force is proving to be slower than some hoped, but ICCO officials are far from disheartened, as Robin Stainer reports
The World Cocoa Conference will see presentations on cocoa production, processing, trade, banking, insurance and other aspects of the supply chain
y the start of February no other country had signed the treaty since Côte d’Ivoire had done so the previ- ous September – a significant develop- ment, as the support of the world’s biggest producer is crucial for its success. Opened at the United Nation’s New
B
York headquarters on October 1 2010 for signature and ratification (or equivalent legislative legal endorsement), the new International Cocoa Agreement (ICCA) by February 1 had been signed by just seven intending members – and none had yet ratified (see table). This is the crucial sec- ond stage of membership requiring some- times lengthy legislative action of some sort, although it can be circumvented by a government’s notifying the UN of provision- al application of the treaty. The text of the new ICCA, which will come
into force for 10 years – if all goes as planned – and has scope for two two-year extensions, was finalised by negotiators at UNCTAD’s Geneva headquarters on June 25 2010 (see C&CI, September 2010, page 46).
Satisfactory progress?
Despite the lack of ratifications by the beginning of February, the ICCO’s acting executive director insisted to Coffee & Cocoa International that "satisfactory progress" was being made toward activat- ing the new ICCA, adding that he was "optimistic" that it would come into force on October 1 this year, so ensuring a seam- less transfer of powers to the ICCO. "At the present time," Jean-Marc Anga noted, "the International Cocoa Agreement 2010 has been signed by 78.85 per cent of
exporting countries and 54.90 per cent of importing countries. We have written to a few countries to encourage them to put the nec- essary instruments of provisional application, ratification, accession, acceptance or approval into place before the due date. In addition, we have written to countries which are members of the current agreement, but not yet party to the new agreement, in order to encourage them to accelerate the required procedures to join the new agreement." The current 2001 ICCA (which has 15 exporting members and 3 importing, counting the EU as one) is the latest of several such pacts, the first in 1973, estab- lishing the ICCO’s as its governing body. It came into force in 2003 and expires at the end of the current extension on September 30 this year - and cannot be extended fur- ther. Its intended replacement is seen as a
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