African
Civil Society's Stance On Economic Partnership Agreements
October 27, 2006,
Zambia
CIVIL society and the private sector have strongly supported the
position taken by Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) negotiators
in the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), to prioritise development
issues as raised during the first text-based negotiating meeting
in Mombasa last month.
At the same time the ESA negotiating group resolved that the negotiations
could not go ahead unless the European Commission (EC) accepted
to negotiate development as envisaged and proposed by the ESA group
in the draft text.
In Mombasa, chair of the ESA ambassadors affirmed the stance that
ESA negotiators did not have the mandate to negotiate EPAs without
development being central to the whole package.
Over 15 ESA countries representing civil society and the private
sector recently gathered in Lusaka, Zambia, to take stock of the
EPA negotiations and how it impacts the business and development
opportunities of countries in the region.
The Regional Dialogue on Economic Partnership Agreements in the
ESA countries defined specific development concerns of EPAs and
difficulties that governments and non-state actors face in proactively
engaging the negotiation process.
Among the issues discussed were the formal review process of EPAs
as visualised in the Cotonou agreement, to develop consensus among
key stakeholders on benchmarking development components to be agreed
upon, and to assess the policy coherence of the EPA at national
and regional level.
The meeting also discussed strengthening capacity of non-state actors
and trade negotiators to effectively engage on the linkages between
trade, development and poverty reduction.
Consumer Unity and Trust Society Africa Resource Centre (CUTS-ARC),
who hosted the meeting, said the indaba was aimed at providing a
forum to debate and contribute to the development component of the
proposed EPA, considering that negotiations are at a crucial stage.
CUTS-ARC's Vladimir Chilinya, coordinator of EPA project, said participants
included stakeholders from the civil society, policy makers and
private sector from 15 countries in the region.
"The indaba will discuss the progress made so far by the EU
on the EPA's for Sub-Saharan countries and, various proposals for
further trade and investment liberalisation.
"It will also offer an opportunity to asses and benchmark the
development component of EPAs in relation to the national and regional
development plans or strategies," Chilinya said.
The meeting also acted as a forum to strategise for the upcoming
non-state actors meeting being organised by the Common Market for
Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in
November this year.
Chilinya said that if there would be any agreement on the EPAs,
the issue of development will have to be considered as stated by
the ESA countries.
"Civil society, like many governments, are not saying no to
EPAs but are simply saying African States cannot trade on the same
grounds as the EU market," he said.
ESA negotiators felt that the EC had not given due regard to the
constraints that hold back the ACP states from taking advantage
of global trade, hence, without the development component, EPAs
would be of no use.
COMESA Secretary-General, Erastus Mwencha echoed civil society's
fears that the EU was applying "underhand methods" in
the negotiations by saying that the Economic Development Fund (EDF)
was sufficient for development in the ESA countries.
"The EDF is coming to an end so why should there be a link
between it and EPAs?" he asked.
Dr Mwencha called upon the EU to provide ESA countries with real
and secure market access through EPAs and to ensure that development
remained at the heart of negotiations.
But EU delegation representative in Lusaka, Francesca Di Mauro retaliated
that the EU would provide aid to support the African countries to
build their capacity to trade and benefit from the opportunities
provided by the EPAs.
Participants expressed concern that the EU aid procedures were "unclear"
and "tedious" to respond to the challenges posed by EPAs
and that the EU currently envisages that EPAs would compete with
aid for social development.
Another major issue discussed at the meeting was the formal review
of progress in the EPA negotiations due to take place in the coming
weeks.
The meetings will ensure that negotiations achieve their objectives.
