EAC, EU LOCKED IN EPA NEGOTIATIONS

The third negotiations session between the East African Community (EAC) partner states and the European Commission (EC) on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) ended on Wednesday[1] in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to consider outstanding issues in the Framework Agreement.

The EAC delegation was led by Dr. Mary Nagu, Tanzania’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Marketing, while the Commissioner of Trade at the EU, Mr. Karel De Gucht, led the EC delegation.

Tanzania’s Minister for Industry, Trade and Marketing, Dr. Mary Michael Nagu, told participants attending a one-day joint EAC-EU-EPA workshop that the East African Community (EAC) partner states and the European Union (EU) initialled a Framework Economic Partnership Agreement (FEPA) on 27 November, 2007 in Kampala, Uganda and the parties undertook to continue the negotiations of the (FEPA) with a view to concluding a comprehensive EPA.

She said the Framework Agreement comprises market access on trade in goods, development cooperation issues and fisheries. In the initialled FEPA, the EAC offered to liberalize 82.6% of its trade with the EU, and retained an exclusion list accounting to 17.4% of the trade with the EU. On its part the EU has offered quota free duty and free market access with exception of ammunition; and transitional arrangement for sugar and rice. However, the main challenge in accessing the EU market has continued to be the stringent rules of origin.

As the EAC region inches closer to the finalisation of the FEPA, it was proper to conduct the workshop to provide an opportunity to disseminate and share critical information on EPA with stakeholders.

The Cotonou Agreement from which EPA bears allegiance sets out clearly that the EPA process was supposed to be “all-inclusive”. The government, members of parliament, the private sector, academia, CSOs, NGOs, the media and the public at large need to be effectively involved. It is on the basis of this understanding that the workshop had been organised to promote awareness and creating ownership of the EPA process to wider stakeholders’ forum, the organizers say.

Development co-operation is an integral part of the EPA to ensure that the EAC partner states are able to adjust to the new challenges and to maximize the benefits from the opportunities offered by the Agreement, noted Dr. Nagu.

It is in this spirit that both parties affirmed their recognition of development needs of the EAC region and their commitment to ensure that EPA is an addition to development that will promote and consolidate regional integration and fast track the integration of the EAC into the global economy. If this commitment is fulfilled, it will enable

EAC countries to address the development needs associated with the EPA and promote the sustainable growth and eventually reduce poverty, the minister observed. It is imperative that these dimensions were reflected in both FEPA and the full EPA.

The minister noted that the outstanding issues were economic and development cooperation, export taxes, and the Most Favoured Nation Treatment (MFN) clauses. Economic development issues were pertinent in addressing supply side constraints which had hampered EAC economies from benefiting from the market opportunities provided by predecessor arrangements of the Lome Conventions and EBA. Export taxes and Most Favoured Nation Treatment (MFN) clauses limit policy space to EAC partner states to take remedial measures for their economic benefits, asserted the minister.

Source:

http://www.apanews.net/apa.php?page=show_article_eng&id_article=125995

[1] Wednesday, 9th June 2010 (Ed.)