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African women hold workshop on
Economic Partnership Agreements
Accra, Nov. 25, Ghanadot/GNA – Mr Tetteh Hormeku, Head of
Programmes of Third World Network, has said that the
European Union tactics of demanding from individual
countries to sign the Economic Partnership Agreements on
their own instead of doing so as a bloc was a major affront
to regional integration.
Speaking at a three-day workshop on the EPAs for women
across the Africa region, Mr Hormeku said the EU through the
acts of fragmentation had clearly shown her non-commitment
to the promotion of regional integration as she had always
maintained in her argument for the signing of the EPAs.
He cited the reported signing of the EPAs by some countries
within the Southern Africa Development Community without
South Africa and Namibia and a similar one to be signed in
the Eastern Africa Region, which had been aborted in the
last minute.
The workshop being held on the theme: “Promoting African
Women’s Voices and Concerns in the Stop EPAs Campaigns,” was
to examine the impact and the consequences of the EPAs on
women and formulate actions to reach out to the public.
The EU is seeking under the EPAs the opening up of the
markets of the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries
duty and quota free for goods from Europe in exchange for
the same treatment to products from the ACP countries.
The EPAs will replace the current Cotonou Agreement, which
expires at the end of December, under which ACP countries
enjoyed preferential access to the EU markets.
The EU had argued that the Cotonou regime is incompatible
with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules that demand equal
treatment for all member countries and because the current
arrangements heavily favoured ACP countries, access to EU
markets over other developing countries will be challenged.
West Africa Trade Negotiators at a meeting in Abidjan had
asked for extension of the World Trade Organisation's waiver
but the EU is unwilling to accede to the request.
Instead, the EU has proposed a two stage approach to the
EPAs; that is concluding an interim agreement in the area of
market access by the end of November this year, while
negotiations on services and other trade related issues such
as government procurement should continue till 2008.
Mr Hormeku said governments should not be lured by the
subtle attempts of the EU to get them to sign on to the EPA
through the backdoor, saying the EPA-Light was a modified
EPA that will commit them to sign the other agreements in
the area of services and trade related issues, which they
had clearly refused to negotiate.
Instead, he said, the governments should put on the table
the enhanced Generalised System of Preferences (GSP+) as an
alternative to the Economic Partnership Agreements when the
current trade regime expires on December 31, this year.
Mr Hormeku said the GSP+ would allow the same access for
goods to the European Union Market.
Dr Yao Graham, Coordinator of Third World Network, said the
EU had so far been unrelenting in its interest and demand
for sticking to the deadline.
This, he said, called for a concentrated engagement and a
lot more public mobilization even when the agreement was
signed.
GNA
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