Johannesburg - Negotiations on an economic partnership agreement
(EPA) between the European Union (EU) and various southern African
countries resume in Brussels this week - but compromises are unlikely,
players say.
The discussions will be observed with particular interest to see what
approach Karel de Gucht, the EU's new trade commissioner, will adopt.
He recently took over the position from Catherine Ashton who, thanks to
a more conciliatory strategy, was able to make greater progress with
the EPAs than her predecessor, Peter Mandelson.
Mandelson had been labelled as "prescriptive", "arrogant" and
"inflexible", having caused considerable damage to relations between
the EU and its former colonies.
No easy task awaits De Gucht. The EPA agreements between the EU and its
former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific Group of States
(the ACP countries) should have been in place by December 2007, when
the Cotonou Agreement lapsed. Cotonou offered the country very
favourable market access to the EU, without which those countries
economies would have been put under tremendous pressure.
In terms of Cotonou any replacement agreement should ensure that the
ACP countries are not worse off than before - a stipulation simply
ignored by Mandelson, says a trade policy expert. The ACP countries are
"highly dependent" on preferential access to the EU, which means that
the EPAs are regarded as the price of continued exporting to the EU.
But at what cost?
The EU is accused of leaving the ACP countries with precious little
room for negotiation and of hampering regional integration in Africa
because different rules obtain for different countries. The scope of
ACP countries' policies is also reduced by EU restrictions on, for
instance, export duties and the protection of new industries.
In addition the EU insists that signatories also offer it any
favourable trading conditions extended to other large trading
countries, such as China, India and Brazil.
South Africa, which does not receive the same market access to the EU
as other southern Africa Customs union member countries, seriously
opposes this because it restricts its ability to negotiate with other
players.
A senior EU official says negotiations with African countries are
complex because of the variety of regional bodies, such as the Southern
African Development Community, the East African Community and the
Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa - and countries that are
members of more than one of these bodies.
Moreover, various strategies obtain for developing these regions to
economic communities and eventually to a uniform African community
similar to the EU.
Much of the criticism levelled at the EU is therefore that it
negotiates different EPAs with different regions, impeding the planned
process of integration.
It is very, very difficult to understand the future plans of the various regions, said the official.
- Sake24.com
For business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.