Africa will still have access to EU marketsIf it refuses to sign the EPAs

Story: Boahene Asamoah
CIVIL Society groups across Africa have said that African countries could still have access to the European markets if they do not sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU).
According to the civil society organisations, “the EU is bound by obligation under the Cotonou agreement, which has the force of international treaty with the ACP to maintain market access for countries that decide not to sign the EPAs.”
They described as false the European Union’s (EU’s) assertion that products from Africa would not have access to EU markets if African countries failed to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement.
“African countries do not need to sign EPAs to maintain their current market access levels to the European Union”, the civil society groups stated.
At a press conference, after a three-day strategic meeting in Accra, Civil Society Groups from about 30 African countries condemned the EU for abusing the December deadline to put unjustifiable pressure on African governments to concede to its terms.
Mr Thomas Deve, Project Officer for Mwengo, a Civil Society group from Zimbabwe, said African had everything to lose and nothing to gain by signing the Economic Partnership Agreements with the EU.
He said African countries could adopt the General System of Preference plus (GSP+) which would enable African countries to have access to EU market at levels similar to what they enjoy currently, adding that, “this can even be improved”.
He said “signing the EPA will trigger severe loss of jobs, threaten the peace of the continent, strangle Africa’s right to evolve and pursue its own agenda and lead to recolonisation of Africa by Europe.
Mr Deve added that the EPA, if signed would lead to the elimination of tariffs but any tariff reduction and elimination would necessarily involve huge fiscal costs and many costs of implementation for Africa and other African and Pacific (ACP) countries.
He said the EU promise of €2 billion under the European Development Fund (EDF) to help with the cost of adjustment under the EPAs was false, misplaced and at best self-serving.
He said the EU was also manipulating the expiration of the Cotonou waiver on December 31, 2007 to send panic waves to African leaders that African exporters will not have access to the European market after the deadline.
Mr Deve said
He expressed regret that in spite of the severe handicaps of the EPAs and the damage they would inflict on African economies and peoples, African leaders continued to negotiate for the EPAs, adding that “this is too much a price to pay”.
Mr Deve stated that the Cotonou agreement provided for countries not to sign on EPAs and said “African civil society organisations therefore call on our governments and negotiators to call the bluff of the European Union and reject the EPAs”.