WAfrica to miss EPA deadline

ABIDJAN – West Africa will miss a Dec 31 deadline to sign a new trade partnership with the European Union and hopes to keep its preferential commercial privileges for up to two years while it negotiates, a West African official said.

Ministers from ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States) were meeting on Friday in Ivory Coast to agree a common approach ahead of talks later this month with the EU over the signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement. EPAs are set to replace preferential bilateral trade arrangements giving African, Caribbean and Pacific states free access to the EU market while allowing them to keep tariffs on EU-sourced imports.Existing preferences have to be scrapped to conform with WTO principles.Anti-poverty campaigners say this shift to the EPA will expose fragile industries in African nations to crushing competition from more modern, efficient EU-based firms.Brussels, which is seeking the Dec 31 deadline, says it will boost their economies and attract investment towards them.The EU is West Africa’s number one trading partner.”West Africa isn’t ready to sign such an agreement by 31 December,” Ablasse Ouedraogo, special adviser for trade negotiations to the ECOWAS President, told Reuters late on Thursday before the start of the West African meeting.EU chiefs are pushing for an interim agreement while ECOWAS ministers want to pursue a legal derogation that would postpone the introduction of the EPA.”We will then have the time to continue the (EPA) negotiations before the WTO can take action (against us),” he said.It “should take less than two years” for the West African bloc to prepare to sign the deal, he said.”It is the most logical and realistic way,” he said in Ivory Coast’s economic capital Abidjan.Ouedraogo said he was confident the two trading blocs would reach an agreement that would avoid any disruption to trade.”There won’t be any worst case scenario.As much as Africa needs the EU, the EU needs Africa.We will find a compromise to enable exchanges to continue that will reinforce the partnership and cooperation between West Africa and the EU,” he said.Nampa-ReutersEPAs are set to replace preferential bilateral trade arrangements giving African, Caribbean and Pacific states free access to the EU market while allowing them to keep tariffs on EU-sourced imports.Existing preferences have to be scrapped to conform with WTO principles.Anti-poverty campaigners say this shift to the EPA will expose fragile industries in African nations to crushing competition from more modern, efficient EU-based firms.Brussels, which is seeking the Dec 31 deadline, says it will boost their economies and attract investment towards them.The EU is West Africa’s number one trading partner.”West Africa isn’t ready to sign such an agreement by 31 December,” Ablasse Ouedraogo, special adviser for trade negotiations to the ECOWAS President, told Reuters late on Thursday before the start of the West African meeting.EU chiefs are pushing for an interim agreement while ECOWAS ministers want to pursue a legal derogation that would postpone the introduction of the EPA.”We will then have the time to continue the (EPA) negotiations before the WTO can take action (against us),” he said.It “should take less than two years” for the West African bloc to prepare to sign the deal, he said.”It is the most logical and realistic way,” he said in Ivory Coast’s economic capital Abidjan.Ouedraogo said he was confident the two trading blocs would reach an agreement that would avoid any disruption to trade.”There won’t be any worst case scenario.As much as Africa needs the EU, the EU needs Africa.We will find a compromise to enable exchanges to continue that will reinforce the partnership and cooperation between West Africa and the EU,” he said.Nampa-Reuters