Namibia sticks to its EPA guns

MALABO – Both Prime Minister Hage Geingob and Trade and Industry Minister Calle Schlettwein have reaffirmed that Namibia wants the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) to not just boost trade, but also development.

Raw materials from Namibia go to the EU in tonnes to be processed, and then get exported back to Namibia as finished goods, Geingob told Nampa on the sideline of the Seventh Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries in Equatorial Guinea this weekend.’This is not the type of trade we need. We need each other – we have our resources and they need to help us add value to our resources in order to talk about fair trade. How do you trade if you do not have resources and we have resources?’ Geingob asked, adding that trade must be mutual and not just in one direction; that it must be a win-win situation.Namibia has been fighting for a fair deal under the EPA regime since 2007, refusing to sign until all issues have been resolved. So far, Namibia has only provisionally initialled the interim agreement.The European Council (EC) last year unilaterally decided on January 2014 as a deadline to sign the EPA. ACP countries missing the deadline will lose its duty- and quota-free access to EU markets. In Namibia’s case, this will mean losing duty- and quota-free market access for its fish, beef and grapes, a move that will cost more than N$600 million in duties based on 2009 trade figures.Namibia aggressively lobbied support in the EU to get the deadline postponed to January 2016. The move proved successful when the European Parliament recently voted to extend the deadline. However, the EC must still endorse this decision.Geingob at last week’s summit called on ACP countries to unite in its negotiations with the EU.’I am very happy that we are united, and the summit reaffirmed that Namibia was not wrong in our request. We were not trying to be funny, we have issues concerning our country,’ he told Nampa.’The summit reaffirmed our joint position that EPAs must not become trade based, but a developmental issue, so that we can add value to our raw materials.’Geingob, until recently Namibia’s Minister of Trade and Industry, has consistently campaigned for the EU to treat Namibia as an equal partner in the EPA negotiations. In 2009, he made headlines internationally when he lashed out at the EU, saying: ‘You cannot smoke cigars in boardrooms in Brussels and bulldoze us.”Speaking to Nampa at the weekend, Geingob said some Caribbean countries that initialed or signed EPAs have indicated that nothing has happened and they have not gained anything. Some African countries have also signed EPAs and so far they are ‘stuck’, he said.Schlettwein, who also attended the summit, echoed Geingob’s sentiments, saying the EPA has to be a developmental arrangement rather than a trade-based issue.He said the summit confirmed that Namibia’s concerns were legitimate for not signing the EPA.’The fact that the Doha Round is deadlocked is also because of a similar issue of skewed arrangement, which leave us with little ‘game’ if we proceed,’ Schlettwein said.The Doha Round is the latest round of trade negotiations among World Trade Organisation (WTO) members. It was officially launched at the WTO’s Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar in November 2001. The Round’s aim is to achieve major reform of the international trading system through the introduction of lower trade barriers and revised trade rules. The Doha Round is also known as the Doha Development Agenda, as a fundamental objective is to improve the trading prospects of developing countries.The Doha Ministerial Declaration provided the mandate for the negotiations, including agriculture, services and an intellectual property topic which began earlier.- Own Report and Nampa