On September 27 2002,
the European Union (EU) and African Caribbean Pacific Countries (ACP) agreed to
review trade
agreements under WTO guidelines. A new deal was brought to the
table by the EU; it was called the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). It
was aimed at redefining trade between these two groups of countries and would
be negotiated over a period of five years. Six sub-regional groupings of the
ACP countries have entered into phase two of the
negotiations to agree on the
EPAs with the EU.
In the EPAs, the EU basically
calls for free access into the markets of the ACP countries; import tax-free.
If this is done, the EU has nothing to lose and everything to gain but the ACP
will have its markets flooded with cheap and imported goods thereby rendering
the local market useless and unable to compete. Since the negotiations are
being done in blocs, some of the poorest countries have a choice of leaving the
regional organization and sticking to the previous agreement with the EU; the
Everything But Arms programme (EBAs) or staying with their regional partners
and risk flooding their markets by opening it up to the EU. The EBAs didn’t do
much for these poor countries since their production capacity is quite small
making exports almost impossible.
The public is largely quite unaware of the EPAs
because the negotiations are taking place far from public debates and scrutiny
both in the EU and ACP. It is being pushed by corporate giants in the EU and
few elites in the ACP all of whom it would benefit. People seem unaware of what
this would bode for the average citizen in the developing countries. Certain
conditions are being given to these ACP coutries; these include debt relief and
aid. This basically means that the EU is giving these developing countries aid
with one hand and rendering them poor and dependent with the other. Campaigners
have continued to warn that the EPAs will under-develop Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. If these countries continue to
be underdeveloped, Europe will have problems
and the west in its entirety because there will be massive immigration, debt increase poverty levels. According to the European Commission, EPAs could lead to the collapse
of the manufacturing sector in West Africa.
Some of the negotiating regions include the South African Development Community
SADC and Economic Community Of West African States ECOWAS.