Fallouts from EPA negotiations

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) faces the unwelcome prospect of another key member country, Ghana, giving in to pressure to go it alone in a partnership agreement with the European Union, Third World Network (TWN), a leading civil society organization has observed.
In its latest Africa Trade Agenda report, TWN states that after the signing of a similar stand-alone agreement between Cote d’Ivoire and the EU, a decision by Ghana to sign its own EPA with the European Union (EU) would undermine the region’s attempt to have a common agreement with the EU which meets the differential development levels and needs of countries in the region.
On December 13, 2007, Ghana and the EU initialed what they called a “stepping stone” Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), which was expected to be signed by June 30, 2008, whilst a regional EPA was being negotiated. The deadline was not met, and the EU is said to be pushing for this to be done as soon as possible this year.
Ghana is one of 78 Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states involved in an EPA negotiating process with the European Union. Of the total ACP countries, 35 countries had initialed agreements by the end of 2007. Fifteen (15) Caribbean countries initialed comprehensive EPAs, whilst 18 countries from Africa and two from the Pacific initialed Interim Economic Partnership Agreements (IEPA), with the understanding that they would continue negotiating comprehensive EPAs.
The initialing of an interim EPA was to prevent trade disruptions between EU and ACP countries after the December 31, 2007 deadline, when the preferential trade arrangements under the Cotonou Agreement and the WTO waiver expired.
Nigeria has on its part rejected the interim agreements and is still debating other options with the European Commission (EC).
All other countries in the ECOWAS region would continue to benefit from a scheme for Least developed country members, under the Everything But Arms (EBA) arrangement.
Tetteh Hormeku, a trade expert at the TWN said Ghana’s signature and ratification of the IEPA will make it a free trade area with the EC, and a source of duty-free European goods into the West African region, adding that Nigeria is known to have signaled its intention to prevent such European goods from coming into its market by banning goods from Ghana and other West African countries with similar agreements.
“The last time Nigeria took a similar measure, it affected a range of Ghanaian products for which Nigeria is the main or only market”, he said.
He cited pharmaceutical products, mosquito coils and nets, and furniture as examples of products that would be affected.
“With Nigeria constituting 60% of the West African regional market, it will be a suicidal folly to ignore these implications, and to argue, as some have done, that Ghana can survive without the Nigerian market, dealing with Cote d’Ivoire in its place ”, Mr Hormeku pointed out.
Similar disruptions in trade are expected among the tiny West African economies following the signing of individual agreements.
The TWN report quotes the ECOWAS Commission President, Dr Ibn Chambas as warning against stand-alone agreements.
“Our region will have different trade agreements with the European Union that will adversely affect our regional integration process”, he said.
“Cote d’Ivoire, kowtowed to the dictates of the EU due to their current political instability, and the country signed the agreement without giving consideration to the implications”, Tetteh Hormeku said at a Frederich Ebeit Foundation (FES) sponsored media training in Accra last week.
According to Mr Hormeku, efforts by the EU to get other African countries into stand-alone agreements are pushing other regional economic groupings to the brink of disintegration.
The EU on June 4, 2009 signed an interim economic partnership agreement with Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland against the wishes of Angola, Namibia, and South Africa.
“This has made imminent, an acrimonious break-up of Africa’s oldest customs union, the Southern African Customs Union (SACU)”, he remarked.
Even though the EU had initially stated that the EPAs would seek to strengthen existing regional integration in ACP territories, abandoning regional agreements for stand-alone agreements flouts this intention and stands to create problems for economic groupings such as ECOWAS.
This act by the EU is seen by many as inimical to economic integration in these regions and supports the criticism that, EU has adopted what is known as ‘divide to rule’ approach.
By: (By Charles K. Amoah), June 23,2009