TOWARDS FULL EPA IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

On 25th and 26th May 2010 EU and Southern African Development Community (SADC) EPA Group negotiators met in Brussels at technical and senior officials' level to discuss the way ahead in Economic Partnership Agreement's talks. They addressed outstanding issues such as the signing of the interim EPA for countries still pending and the modalities to establish comprehensive regional EPA negotiations. The compromise reached between the EU and SADC EPA negotiators in Swakopmund (Namibia) in March 2009 was addressed with the perspective to include it in the final EPA deal. The consistency and alignment between the interim EPA and the EU-South Africa Trade and Development Co-operation Agreement (TDCA) were also discussed. Further technical negotiations will take place in Brussels in July, and a Senior Officials' meeting is scheduled to take place in September in the SADC EPA Group region.

Up today, an interim EPA has been signed by Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique in June 2009, with Namibia still pending.

As regards Namibia, the Country's trade minister Hage Geingob, who called on EU “to abandon bully tactics”, has recently pointed out the negative effects EPAs would cause, including the disintegration of the Southern African Customs Union (SAU) and the weakening of national development strategies including all the measures adopted in order to protect and stimulate domestic production.

Moreover, he stressed that Namibia would also be unable to stimulate the growth of its domestic industrial and agricultural sectors without the pressures of outside competition and would abandon all the achievements obtained in food security and rural development by cancelling all taxes and restrictions to import.

Critics to EPA negotiations are still arising also in Countries where interim agreements have already been signed. As reported by the Swaziland Observer, President of the Federation of Swaziland Employers and Chamber of Commerce (FSE & CC), Ambrose Dlamini, declared that there were inadequate consultations ahead of the signing. The Country realised afterwards that the survival of some industries was threatened, he said. According to this, he claimed for a strengthened involvement even into SADC integration processes.

Partnership for Change has supported Namibia’s Civil Society, within the framework of an initiative launched by the Stop EPAs Campaign, expressing concern over the undue pressure on the government of Namibia to sign the interim EPA while negotiations on the “SADC” EPA are still ongoing and contentious issues still remain outstanding.

For more information:

http://www.acp-eu-trade.org/library/files/EPA%20News_EN_010610_EC_EU-SADC%20Negotiation.pdf

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51565

http://www.newera.com.na/article.php?articleid=11051

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/wider-agenda/development/economic-partnerships/negotiations/#_sad