ECOWAS not ready for EPA-WAMI Boss

Story: Boahene Asamoah
THE Director-General of the West African Monetary Institute (WAMZ), Dr Joseph O. Nnanna, has said that member states of ECOWAS are not ready to sign the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).
That was because the promises made by the European Union (EU) to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries had not been fulfilled, he explained.
In an interview after the opening of the Ministerial Session of the Ministerial Monitoring Committee on the EPA Negotiations in Accra yesterday, Dr Nnanna said “issues of revenue loss, access to European markets and many critical constraints have not been fully addressed”.
He said the infrastructure of the sub-region had also not been fully developed and integrated to take advantage of the EPAs.
Dr Nnanna stated that the means to the economic development of the sub-region lay in intra-African trade which had not been fully exploited.
“Intra-African trade is one sure way of developing the sub-region and it will help boost investments and trade among African countries,” he said.
He cited the example of Asia where intra-Asian trade accounted for about 60 per cent of trade, while in the EU it was about 55 per cent.
He expressed regret that within the sub-region of ECOWAS, trade accounted for only 12 per cent of all trade and described it as too low for any economic development.
The director-general said efforts must be intensified to diversify trade and distribute it among ECOWAS members.
The EPAs are a set of trade agreements expected to be signed by December this year to form the legal basis of trade between the EU and ACP countries, which include countries in West Africa.
Civil society groups have largely criticised the EPAs for what they call “a lack of human face”, saying the agreements will compromise the competitiveness of African countries to export to the EU, the largest trading partner of ACP countries.