Vestafrika: NGOer mod aftaler

Africa Trade Network, en koalition af afrikanske NGO'er, afholdt i august 2008 et regionalt vestafrikansk møde i et forsøg på at samle den folkelige modstand mod EUs partnerskabsaftaler. De to følgende nyhedshistorier fra ghanesiske aviser er fra dette møde.

Third World Network wants government to decline EPA pact

The Third World Network (TWN) has said that it will continue to mount pressure on the government and policy makers for them to withdraw from signing a non-preferential economic partnership with the European Union (EU).
Daily Graphic, Ghana. 23 August 2008
At a press conference in Accra on Thursday ahead of the 11th Annual Review and Strategic Meeting of the Africa Trade Network (ATN), a coalition of non-governmental organizations across Africa, the Programmes Officer; Environment Unit of TWN, Mr Gyekye Tanoh, said "it is still necessary that as civil society, we intervene to ensure that Ghana gets the best deal in the process”.

The Accra meeting, hosted by TWN Africa, will focus on responding to the new challenges emerging for the ATN’s ongoing flagship campaign against the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).

Since Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire signed an Interim Partnership Agreement in December last year, neither of their Parliaments has been able to ratify the agreement, when the deadline elapsed in two months ago.

“The interim EPA is fraudulent because it goes beyond what it claims to do. Instead of focusing on trade in goods, the agreement actually captures the Singapore issues such as procurement, trade-related issues and intellectual property rights," he stated.

"More importantly, from the point of view of genuine development, the lEPAs are also a framework for expansion into full and comprehensive EPAs, which include commitments that have been rejected and thrown out of the WTO, such as universal liberalization and deregulation of services and investment rules," Mr Tanoh added.

Although the EU claimed that it was illegal to trade within the old trading system under which it offered non-reciprocal market access to countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP), it has since December last year not notified World Trade Organisation (WTO) about the interim agreement.

This means that the two parties still trade based on the old system, which is premised on the Cotonou Partnership Agreement signed in Benin in 2000.

The Programme Officer of the TWN said the so-called interim EPA conflicted with most of Ghana’s local laws, policies and programmes such as the Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GPIP) and defeated the pro-industry Domestic Content Bill.

The four-day annual review and strategy meeting of the ATN would, therefore, explore some of these issues and examine options by locating the current conjuncture of the EPAs in a more comprehensive context of the global economy and form a perspective of shared analysis of the real development options for Africa today.

“Equally, such clarification will facilitate linkages and mobilization of strategic constituencies and help sustain the upscaling of the Stop EPA campaign and its broad range of advocacy and campaign intervention outside and inside the official negotiations," Mr Tanoh said.

Some specific issues to be discussed from Monday, August 25 to Thursday, August 28, this year, will include Global and African economic context today; Global Crises, the rise of China and other emerging powers and the commodity boom, as well as examining the interim EPAs on trade in goods) and EPAs (Services, Singapore Issues).

ECOWAS civil society groups kick against trade deals with EU

Civil society organisations have asked governments of ECOWAS countries to suspend all trade-related negotiations with the EU.
Ghana News, 25 August 2008. By Fiifi Koomson
Representatives of the organisations speaking at the ongoing 11th African Trade Network Review and Strategy meeting in Accra said any such negotiations could put Africa on the losing side.

The conference which has brought together representatives from all ECOWAS countries and is strategising a campaign against the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).

The EPAs are a scheme to create a free trade area (FTA) between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. They are a response to continuing criticism that the non-reciprocal and discriminatory preferential trade agreements offered by the EU are incompatible with WTO rules.

However, most African countries have since the announcement of the programme presented stiff criticism arguing it does not serve the interest of the continent.

The groups at the Accra meeting gave a number of reasons for which African countries may have to suspend trade negotiations, especially with the EU. They argue:

1. The world economic order has changed. There are now new players such as China and India who seem to be shaping the direction of global trade at the expense of the traditional players like the US and Britain.
2. The financial crisis that has hit Europe and Northern America means Africa may not be able to secure adequate volumes of imports from these countries. The situation could also reduce the EU’s loan advances to Africa and other ACP countries.

The groups also argue that the situation is even more serious considering the current high food prices in the continent. Food prices have surged a record high of 40 per cent this year on the continent, analysts say.

At the moment, Ghana has signed the "EPA light" ahead of the ECOWAS timetable, pending the implementation of a permanent deal.
Government is expected to sign the final phase of the Economic Partnership Agreement this year.