• by Aileen Kwa
• Tuesday, March 17, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Given the way the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations have been based on the requirement for reciprocal market opening with the European Union (EU), they are likely to bring more losses than gains for Africa and make the path to development even more difficult, writes Aileen Kwa, coordinator of the Trade and Development Programme at the South Centre, Geneva.

In this article, the author writes that while the price African countries would have to pay to maintain preferential access into the EU is very high, the value of this access will essentially vanish in 5-10 years because the EU is already negotiating Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Central America, Andean countries, ASEAN, India, and other entities. For preferences that will last but a few years, African countries are being asked to sign away control over their trade policy.

The South Centre recommends that countries that want to sign an EPA use development benchmarks pegged to their trade liberalisation schedules. This will ensure that only when countries attain a certain level of development will they have to undertake far-reaching reform of their trade regimes vis-a-vis a very strong economic partner, the EU.

(*) Aileen Kwa is coordinator of the Trade and Development Programme at the South Centre, Geneva.

//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, NEW ZEALAND, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM//

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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