Direct trade talks should resume ‘without delay’

TURKISH Cypriot leaders greeted with pleasure yesterday a decision by the EU Council to seek the rapid implementation of a package aimed at instigating direct trade between the north of the island and the EU.

“This is positive. The foreign ministers of the EU have strengthened earlier decisions and have raised the level of commitment [to see the package implemented],” a high-level Turkish Cypriot source told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.

“The foreign ministers seem more determined than before and have now called on the member states to implement it [the direct trade package] as soon as possible,” the source added.

Direct trade relations between north Cyprus and the EU were first mooted in April 2004 after the Turkish Cypriot community strongly backed the Annan plan, rejected by the Greek Cypriots. However, a proposal put forward by the European Commission has remained shelved, primarily due to Greek Cypriot objections. The government believes that allowing the Turkish Cypriots to trade directly through ports in the north would be tantamount to recognition of the breakaway state.

However, the EU yesterday seemed to take a step closer to implementation of the package by calling on its rapid ratification.

“Work aiming at the adoption of the Commission proposal for a Council Regulation on special conditions for trade with the areas of the Republic of Cyprus in which the Government of the Republic of Cyprus does not exercise effective control must resume without delay,” yesterday’s meeting of the EU Council concluded. News sources in Brussels indicated there had been little discussion at the Council over the contents of the package. While ministers were given the right to put forward views, the sources said, lengthy discussions were avoided.

But although the statement called for movement “without delay”, diplomats in Brussels cautioned direct trade was not around the corner.

“Will moving ahead on trade regulation be difficult? – the answer is yes,” an EU diplomat said, adding that the issue was in the hands of the current German EU presidency.

But the Turkish Cypriot source said he had “faith” that the German presidency would do more to see the package implemented. Where others, such as the British, Austrians and Finns have failed to broker an agreement between EU member states and the two Cypriot sides, the source said he believed Germany was “a powerful presidency” that was keen to see the economic and political isolation of the north ended. He said also that the German presidency was already planning “intensive negotiations” between the two sides in Cyprus.

Speaking on Turkish Cypriot television over the weekend, chief advisor to the Turkish Cypriot leadership Rasit Pertev predicted that yesterday’s EU Council meeting would constitute a demonstration of the EU’s will to take the direct trade package off the shelf.
“If the EU sees here [north Cyprus] as part of the EU, then it has to do it,” he said.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.