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Meles reminded Europe that Africa is a source of
illegal migration; he argued that what goes wrong in
Africa affects Europe considerably. In addition, he
stressed that the EU economic zone is a significant
source of grants and the largest trading partner for
Africa, with the former providing non-reciprocal
preferential trade deals to the ACP nations,
particularly to least developed countries (LDCs).
Following an agreement both parties signed on
development cooperation in Cotonou, Benin, in 2000,
they launched negotiations, two years later, to
reach into a comprehensive Economic Partnership
Agreement (EPA). This agreement is required to be
not only reciprocal of the deals with one another,
but also compatible to multilateral trade agreements
on the World Trade Organization (WTO) platform. This
would compel poor countries from the ACP region to
give up their revenue sources from custom duties,
open their markets so that they integrate their
economies to the European economy in goods,
services, capital and economic policies.
Nevertheless, negotiating cutting edge trade deals
was not found to be as blasé as signing cooperation
agreements: A deadline set by the WTO for December
2007 has long passed, with only the Caribbean region
signing a comprehensive EPA with the EU. Another 18
countries have initialed an interim agreement on
EPA, while several others, including Ethiopia, have
refused to commit themselves to the deadline.
While the progress made so far with respect to the
EPA negotiations may be compatible with the WTO
rules, they are not well-suited to our development
needs,” Meles told trade negotiators last week.
And there are vocal voices in ACP, such as that of
Minister Sufian’s, who protest that in EPA, they are
required to fulfill commitments that are not
included in WTO deals: Competition, e-commerce,
public procurement, investment, and services.
“Special and deferential treatments provided to LDCs
and land-locked countries under WTO rules are not
available under EPAs,” Sufian told the delegates
last week.
If he sounded bitter, he may have had reason to be,
as his country will only benefit a fraction (644
million euros) of the 24 billion euros earmarked to
support 78 ACP countries included in the 10th
European Development Fund (EDF). The fund will be
disbursed from 2008 to 2013.
However, at the centre of the negotiations is the
cost of liberalization and tariff adjustment on
their respective economies. ACP countries would lose
359 million dollar per year due to EPA agreement, a
study conducted by International Centre for Trade
and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) revealed.
“The support needed for domestic producers to adjust
to increased competition from imports and new
opportunities for exports as a result of duty free
and quota free access . . . often require
significant investment in both physical and human
resources,” the study recommends.
Trade negotiators from ACP countries want to have
longer transition period to adjust their economies
and want EU to foot the bill. If agreed, ACP
countries are required under EPA to liberalize their
trade by 80pc within 15 years. Sufian argued that
ACPs need a sufficient transition.
In the absence of financial and technical support
and assurance to cover the adjustment costs that
would inevitably follow trade liberalization, it was
unlikely that ACP countries, which have yet to sign
EPAs, would do so in the next few months, Minister
Sufian warned.
EU trade negotiators, however, are not pleased with
this demand. They told ACP countries last week there
would be no additional funding to deal with EPA
related adjustment costs.
Prime Minister Meles urge delegates of the joint
council to negotiate in “a spirit of understanding
of each other’s interests and a spirit of
accommodation”.
There seems to be little room for mutual
accommodation for EU is firm in its position that
EPA is the only platform it desires to engage with
ACP countries. It seems its trade policymakers are
losing patience.
“If you want to remain poor, just be against the
EPAs,” Louis Michel, who met Meles last week, told
delegates of a joint ACP-EU parliamentary assembly
held last March, in Slovenia. |
