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TNI’s September issue leads with an exclusive interview with COMESA Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya, who speaks frankly on the recent launch of the COMESA customs union and ESA’s signing of the Interim EPA. While member states have deferred the launch of the customs union for a number of years, Ngwenya identifies the financial crisis as a motivating force to launch the customs union now. Ngwenya discusses COMESA’s tariff revenue collection system and outlines the concrete steps that are taking place towards harmonisation of the common external tariff among COMESA countries themselves and the East African Community.
In “They want to silence us: The impact of governance on trade and rural development in Cameroon” ACDIC Secretary General Jacob Kotcho draws on the recent National Anti-Corruption Commission report regarding the maize sector scandal involving the Ministry of Agriculture in Cameroon to demonstrate how lack of democracy, freedom, and respect for established rules, constitute a major barrier to taking full advantage of trade. Kotcho also considers the impact of a democratic deficit in international fora and points to a lack of transparency in the EPA negotiations to illustrate how ACP governments’ accountability to their citizens has been compromised.
Following on from this, El Hadji Diouf offers an African perspective on GATT Article XXIV and the market access offers in EPAs and presents legal arguments that support West Africa’s offer to liberalize 60 percent of their trade with the EU.
On 30 September, the EC’s Sugar protocol will officially expire. In this article, Patricia Garcia-Duran, Elisa Casanova, and Montserrat Millet examine the changes to the EU-ACP sugar trade regime and discuss the provisions that have been made to allow gradual adaptation to the new reality over the next 6 years.
A midterm review of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy is currently underway. In “Shortfalls and Opportunities: The implementation of the Africa-EU Trade, Regional Integration and Infrastructure Partnership” Veronika Tywuschik and Stephanie Colin provide an overview of the progress to date and consider the partnership’s potential in order to stimulate discussion as the review awaits approval at the Ministerial Troika of October 2009.
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