EU, SADC discuss Economic Partnership Agreements
Owino, Wene (Business Daily, Nairobi) 2009-02-12
European Union (EU) Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton was due to arrive in Botswana yesterday for talks with senior SADC officials. A statement from the EU said that Ashton and officials from the Southern African Development Community were to discuss ways of moving bilateral and inter-regional trade relationships forward.
She was expected to meet Trade Minister Neo Moroka and Foreign Minister Phandu Skelemani in Gaborone, as well as top officials from the southern African development bloc.
Ashton has been in South Africa this week were she was expected to meet Trade Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa and Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as well as a group of ministers from other SADC members including Angola and Namibia.
The main reason for her visit was to discuss the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) which are meant to create a free trade area between the EU and countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP).
Negotiations between the EU and SADC have been ongoing since 2004.
A key challenge in implementing the EPA is the reconciliation of the various trade relations in the region with the EU. Regional giant South Africa already has a Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) with the EU which was signed in 1999.
The agreement is meant to create a free trade area between the EU and South Africa over a period of 12 years, as the EU opens its market to South African goods at a faster pace under the pact. South Africa has, according to some, been stalling on the EPA due to its desire to fall back on the TDCA.
The EPA negotiations were launched in 2004, but the matter is complicated by the 1999 agreement and the fact that South Africa was only officially brought on board in 2007. Further problems emerged when Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, and Swaziland signed an interim agreement with the EU at the end of 2007.
SA opted out of the deal, questioning its legality and raising concerns over the country’s infant industries. Other SADC signatories have in response threatened to conclude a final EPA deal with the EU even in SA’s absence.
“We have initialled the EPAs without South Africa and we can go ahead without South Africa”, Moroka said after the signing of the deal.
The relationship complications in the EPA negotiations are further exacerbated by the fact that the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) of four members needs to be taken into consideration.
Fears have been sparked that an EPA will hurt the tariff-reliant economies of Lesotho and Swaziland, who are members of SACU. Angola is allowed to join the deal as a least developed country (LDC). It has full access to the EU market under the Everything But Arms (EBA) provision.
