The International Coffee Organization (ICO) issued a press release taking issue with statements made by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), characterizing its reasons for withdrawing from ICO effective February 2.
“We want to have our interests catered for,” said UCDA managing director Emmanuel Iyamulemye in an interview on Feb 11 in Uganda’s capital city Kampala. “We think the ICO needs reforms. This was reported in the Feb 15 STiR Newsletter.
However ICO says that way back in March 2019 , ICC, the highest decision-making body in the organization, established a working group on the future of the International Coffee Agreement (WGFA) to update and reform the current agreement. “Participation in WGFA is open to all ICO members,” said ICO. “Nevertheless, Ugandan representatives have not been actively participating in this process and have never submitted any proposal for change based on their vision and interest, nor on the issues raised in the UCDA statement of 9 February.”
According to a report in Reuters, Uganda present Yoweri Museveni has long complained about lopsided trade rules that “rob the likes of Uganda in trade commodities such as coffee.”
In its statement, UCDA expressed concern about various aspects of the ICO agreement and its renegotiation. ICO say 3 or the 7 concerns raised by Uganda have no actual linkage with the agreement itself and neither UCDA or Ugandan authorities have never addressed them within ICO sessions of the council or in any other meetings of its subsidiary bodies, such as the Statistical Committee. With regard to the other four concerns, ICO says it,” has never received any proposals for change in any of its forums from Uganda.”
ICO says these four issues raised by UCDA are already addressed in the current ICA and are being revised by ICO members as part of the WGFA process. “Therefore, the ICO secretariat is of the opinion that the Ugandan coffee sector would be better served by staying in the current ICA, and together with all other ICO exporting and importing members, participating in the drafting of the new agreement based on its interest, in a true spirit of multilateralism that has always guided the participation of Uganda in international forums.”
ICO says its members would have welcomed the contributions of Uganda to WGFA, adding as an old African proverb says, "You cannot claim your share of the meal while you are not at the dinner table".
ICO says its doors are open when and if Uganda decides to rejoin the agreement and ICO.