Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 13 • Number 11 • 25th March 2009
Ashton, EU Parliament Make New Push on EPAs
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The EU has demonstrated renewed vigour in its push to ink Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, with a flurry of activity at the European Parliament.
On 25 March, the European Parliament voted to support an interim EPA with Côte d’Ivoire. The same day, European lawmakers also passed resolutions affirming their resolve to continue work on agreements with a number of other states and partnerships within the Pacific and African regions, including the East African Community (EAC) and the South African Development Community (SADC).
Brussels considers the EPAs a WTO-compatible method to promote growth and economic integration in the developing world. But critics assert that such agreements liberalise trade too much and too quickly, overwhelming emerging economies.
Yet recent statements from Brussels contend that such criticisms are misplaced, as the EU appears committed to moving forward with the agreements.
The EU has “absolutely no interest whatsoever” in creating agreements “that make any country poorer,” said EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton on Monday.
“I believe that these are good agreements that support economic development and integration in the ACP and provide stability in these economically turbulent times . . . they are agreements that provide the opportunity for ACP states to lift their citizens out of poverty through the dignity of their own labour and the genius of their own ideas.”
Reaffirming her commitment to further liberalisation, Ashton also sent a letter to African trade ministers on 20 March, pressing SADC officials to set a date for signing interim agreements – a move which Ashton claims is necessary to ensure legal security for preferences offered to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique and Swaziland.
Despite attempts to conclude the agreement, the SADC EPA is now nearly fifteen months past the original deadline of January 2008. In the latest effort to move the talks forward, trade officials met in Namibia to address concerns of Angola, Namibia and South Africa, a meeting seen as productive by many observers.
However, officials from some African nations were hesitant to solidify the interim agreements and requested more time from Brussels.
“Many countries feel that the EPA in its current form would undermine the regional integration agenda,” said South African Deputy Director of Trade and Industry of Xiam Carim.
Other African representatives remain non-committal on exact signing dates, indicating that some nations await approval from their respective trade ministers. “We’re ready to sign, we’re just waiting to be advised accordingly,” Swaziland Foreign Affairs Ministry official Clifford Mamba said in an interview last week.
Yet in light of strong support within the European Parliament, Brussels was optimistic regarding the development of additional EPAs.
“I welcome the Parliament’s vote on the Economic Partnership Agreements. It is an important political signal that the European Parliament has given its assent to the first examples of a new generation of agreements that safeguard the EU’s special relationship with the ACP,” said Catherine Ashton.
ICTSD Reporting; “EC Pushes for Interim EPA to be Signed ASAP,” THE SWAZI OBSERVER, 24 March 2009; “EC pushes for trade pact signature date,” BUSINESS DAY, 23 March 2009.
2 responses to “Ashton, EU Parliament Make New Push on EPAs”
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The statements by the trade commissioner sounds good but do not send any clear signal on the extreme divergences that do exist on the commitments already made in the interim framework agreements.Unless there will be reopening of the initialed agreements,then regional integration agenda is on the doldrums if nations are going to negotiate on the rendezvous clauses that contain new generation issues and subjects currently under negotiations at the multilateral levels,not withstanding the failure to conclude DDA taking into account that the EU is not ready to infuse flexibilities in some of these outstanding issues.By insisting that MFN,Standstill clause,Duties on exports,safeguard mechanisms etc to remain as they are is not plausible.If the Eu had no interest in making poor countries poor through the Agreements,then they should renegotiate some of the issues that will in doubt make countries poor by taking away their policy space.
In Africa, EPAs need to be evaluated in the context of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). In particular, it will be important that the performance of EPAs be systematically examined and their performance assessed in relation to mutually agreed bilateral and multilateral agreements, commitments, conventions, declarations, protocols and undertakings. The reviews must be flexible, non-adversarial and collegial, relying on mutual trust, learning and understanding. They must of necessity be based on mutually agreed performance benchmarks and indicators.