Africa-EU will beat EPA trade deadline

MWAURA MOMBASA – The European Union and eastern and southern African countries will beat a 2008 deadline to sign a replacement deal guaranteeing preferential trade, a top EU trade official said on Friday.

The EU is in negotiations with six regions in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific to put trade deals or economic partnership agreements (EPAs) in place by January 1, 2008. The EPAs are designed to replace a 2000 agreement, signed in the Benin city of Cotonou, which grants countries of the region preferential trade access to the European Union and is intended to eventually lead to full trade liberalisation.Peter Thompson, who is the director general of trade for the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, told Reuters he was certain an agreement would come well before the deadline.”I am convinced we will have a deal before the end of next year and hopefully well before so we can go through the ratification processes,” Thompson said.Negotiators in the EU and the Eastern and Southern African (ESA) bloc have been discussing the initial EPA draft for their region in the Indian Ocean city of Mombasa since Monday.Currently, most of the ESA countries have free access to the EU markets but this will come to an end on December 31, 2007.The EU has restricted access to the markets of its ESA partners.Thompson said that the meeting started on a sour note with the African delegates holding firm to demands that development funding be a key element of the trade agreement.EU negotiators have insisted that regional integration is the road to development rather than donor aid.”We think that this partnership model, which will in and of itself render private investment more conducive will in turn lead to economic growth that we need, that will dwarf anything to do with aid payments,” Thompson said.Thompson said the region would receive 22,6 billion euros between 2008-2013 from the European Development Fund to finance development projects like building dams and roads.The EU has already given another 13 billion euro in 2000-2007.The EU estimates that every year US$100 billion dollars worth of investments leave the continent.Thompson said that despite the efforts put into trade negotiations, the amount of trade they represented from Africa remained fairly small.”Sadly, the region represents a very small proportion of our trade.Our fish, in terms of what we are frying, is still with the United States, with China…Africa is very low.”Nampa-ReutersThe EPAs are designed to replace a 2000 agreement, signed in the Benin city of Cotonou, which grants countries of the region preferential trade access to the European Union and is intended to eventually lead to full trade liberalisation.Peter Thompson, who is the director general of trade for the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, told Reuters he was certain an agreement would come well before the deadline.”I am convinced we will have a deal before the end of next year and hopefully well before so we can go through the ratification processes,” Thompson said.Negotiators in the EU and the Eastern and Southern African (ESA) bloc have been discussing the initial EPA draft for their region in the Indian Ocean city of Mombasa since Monday.Currently, most of the ESA countries have free access to the EU markets but this will come to an end on December 31, 2007.The EU has restricted access to the markets of its ESA partners.Thompson said that the meeting started on a sour note with the African delegates holding firm to demands that development funding be a key element of the trade agreement.EU negotiators have insisted that regional integration is the road to development rather than donor aid.”We think that this partnership model, which will in and of itself render private investment more conducive will in turn lead to economic growth that we need, that will dwarf anything to do with aid payments,” Thompson said.Thompson said the region would receive 22,6 billion euros between 2008-2013 from the European Development Fund to finance development projects like building dams and roads.The EU has already given another 13 billion euro in 2000-2007.The EU estimates that every year US$100 billion dollars worth of investments leave the continent.Thompson said that despite the efforts put into trade negotiations, the amount of trade they represented from Africa remained fairly small.”Sadly, the region represents a very small proportion of our trade.Our fish, in terms of what we are frying, is still with the United States, with China…Africa is very low.”Nampa-Reuters