TRADE-AFRICA: RED FACES OVER EPAS RED HERRING
David Cronin
BRUSSELS (IPS) - Senior European Union officials have admitted being embarrassed at how the bloc's own procedures are delaying them from signing economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with Africa.
During 2007 the European Commission repeatedly insisted that it was necessary to conclude trade accords with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries by the end of that year.
The reason stated for the deadline was that the preferential access granted to exports from those countries to the EU's markets would no longer enjoy an exemption from rules set by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) after that date.
Although 35 ACP governments initialled agreements in late 2007, these have not yet been formally notified to the WTO.
David O'Sullivan, the Commission's director-general for trade, confessed on October 13 at a hearing at the European Parliament that the delays were "very worrying".
He blamed the holdup on demands by the European Union's governments that the accords be translated into the Union's 23 official languages.
This onerous requirement has "overloaded" the administration, he said, adding that Peter Mandelson, the EU’s former trade commissioner who was appointed to a ministerial post in the British government earlier this month, was irritated by the bureaucratic hurdles he had encountered when attempting to put the deals put into effect.
"This is a very embarrassing situation," O'Sullivan said. "Until a few days before his return to London, Mr Mandelson was pushing us and insisting 'why can you not do better?'."
Frithjof Schmidt, a German Green member of the European Parliament (MEP), suggested he had been misled. "In 2007, we were told of the need for rapid notification (to the WTO)," Schmidt said, addressing O’Sullivan directly. "I think you did not inform us correctly during 2007."
Thirteen Caribbean countries are slated to sign an EPA for their region at a ceremony in Barbados this week. But O'Sullivan acknowledged that many of the accords reached with Africa will not be ready for signature until 2009.
The African agreements have been limited to trade in goods and are being referred to by officials as "interim" or "steeping stone" deals. Negotiations are continuing with a view to expanding them, and to secure accords with more than 40 ACP countries that have so far not accepted any EPA.
The Commission is hoping that the widened accords will cover "new issues" such as the liberalisation of services, foreign investment, competition and public procurement.
At a summit between the EU and African leaders in Lisbon last December, the European Commission President José Manuel Barroso gave a commitment that provisions which governments considered as contentious in the interim accords could be renegotiated.
African diplomats complain, however, that this commitment is not being honoured. One issue deemed especially contentious relates to restrictions in some of the EPAs on the use of export taxes.
Some African countries levy taxes on export products such as cocoa, metal and live animals. For countries which have extremely small revenue bases, these duties are a significant source of income. Such duties could also be used to encourage the development of industries that process commodities before exporting them.
In one of his final speeches as an EU commissioner, Mandelson signalled his desire to have bans on export taxes inserted into all free trade agreements that the Union concludes.
O’Sullivan said that the Union does not wish to "impose anything on anyone" but that it regarded open trading in raw materials as preferable to export taxes.
"We understand fully the development concerns behind export taxes," he told IPS. "We should be flexible to accommodate the genuine development concerns of our partners. On the other hand, there isn’t a functioning market in raw materials. Everything in the end suffers from that, including European industry, which is deprived of important inputs."
One African diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, described Mandelson’s comments on export taxes as "appalling".
"In essence, what he is saying is that the EU intends to deprive ACP countries of value-adding activities," the diplomat added.
Nana Bema Kumi, Ghana’s ambassador to Brussels, said it is "paramount" that her country receives substantial aid from the Union if the EPA her country has signed is to succeed.
Another major challenge, she added, is "to get the Ghanaian public to accept the EPA".
Under the accord, Ghana is to eliminate 80 percent of the tariffs it applies on imports from Europe within a 15-year period.
"There is a genuine fear about the possible collapse of some Ghanaian industries because of their inability to compete (with European imports)," the ambassador said. "And the likely loss of tariff revenue cannot be overemphasised."
Cameroon expressed concern about how the collapse of the effort to revive the Doha round of world trade talks in July is having a knock-on effect on the EPA negotiations.
Shortly before the talks broke down, the European Commission sought to end a 15-year-old dispute with Latin American banana producers over preferences it had granted to ACP countries that grow this fruit.
The Commission offered to reduce its import duties on Latin American bananas to 114 euros (179 dollars) a ton by 2016. The duty stands at 176 euros a ton today.
Jacques Alfred Ndoumbe Eboule, Cameroon's EU envoy, said that "Cameroon, like other ACP banana producers wants financial compensation" for any arrangement reached with Latin America. "The alternative is the decimation of our banana sector," he added.
Karin Ulmer, a campaigner with Aprodev, an alliance of anti-poverty groups linked to Protestant churches, said that the EU’s maintenance of banana preferences was an issue of fundamental importance for Cameroon and that it should not have to implement an agreement which does not offer it sufficient protection.
Of eight Central African countries involved in the EPA talks, only Cameroon approved an interim agreement last year. Talks aimed at reaching an agreement with the remaining seven governments in the regional grouping are continuing.
"The region wants to negotiate as a region," Ulmer noted. "The Commission should not weaken Cameroon by putting pressure on it or singling it out." (END)
