EU Ponders Next Move On Trade Deals

from All Africa

The Monitor (Kampala)

By Peter Nyanzi
Brussels

The European Union is contemplating the way forward following the reluctance of the majority of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to sign the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) they have been negotiating, five months after the expiry of the December 31 deadline set by the World Trade Organisation.

EU officials told a group of ACP journalists attending a workshop on EPAs in Brussels recently that there was need for a consensus "as soon as possible" with the regional blocs and individual States that had initialled interim agreements and those had completed rejected them.

Eight years ago when negotiations on EPAs began, it was with the best of intentions - to put in a place a fair trade regime that would go beyond just being compatible with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules; to encompass poverty alleviation, development and regional integration in the ACP countries.

But as the WTO's December 31, 2007 deadline drew close, there was angst and despair as the whole process became increasingly bogged down in a quagmire of controversy and acrimony.

Not surprisingly, only less than half of the 78 ACP countries had initialled the agreements at the close of the year. Of the six regions, only the Caribbean has concluded a full EPA.

The East African region signed an interim agreement on November 23.

Later in June or July, the Commission will present both the interim and full EPAs to the European Parliament for approval.

Following high-level consultations with the concerned parties, the EC has drawn up a number of issues for which it seeks consensus over the next 12 months with the negotiators from the various regions involved in the EPA talks.

Intense lobbying is rife in Brussels, the European capital by civil society actors and lobby groups, which want the whole process revisited.

But Mr Peter Mandelson, the trade commissioner and other officials, blamed the impasse on "misinformation" and "misconceptions" being perpetuated by some civil society groups and some Members of the European Parliament (MEP) such as Ms Glenys Kinnock, who denies the claims.