Since 2002 the European Union (EU) and countries of the Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific Group (ACP) have been negotiating Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) as part of the Cotonou Agreement. EPAs aim to establish "new WTO compatible trading arrangements removing progressively barriers of trade between EU and ACP countries" which would build on "the regional integration initiatives of ACP states" and promote "sustainable development and contribute to poverty eradication in the ACP countries ". EPAs as they are currently being set up and negotiated are essentially Free Trade Agreements. Consistently, the EU has insisted that EPAs be based on a tight interpretation of WTO rules aiming for the elimination of all trade barriers on more than 90% of EU-ACP trade, within the shortest possible transitional time period. In addition the EU is demanding negotiations in the field of investment, competition, trade facilitation, government procurement, data protection and services. Negotiations of the first four of these issues were rejected by ACP countries in the WTO because of their negative implications for development. Under the guise of a 'development partnership' the EU is re-introducing its WTO free trade agenda through EPAs. Despite a great deal of reluctance from ACP countries, the European Commission has put heavy economic and political pressure to rush into the EPA free trade negotiations without sufficient preparation. Those voices in Europe and the ACP urging the Commission to look for other options were ignored. As a result of heavy dependence on aid, ACP governments have little choice but to give in to the EU's demand that they open up their markets to European goods and services. The overwhelming emphasis on liberalisation in the EPA negotiations proves that these negotiations are about expanding Europe's access to ACP markets, rather than about ACP countries' development. Regional integration efforts are central to ACP countries' development strategies. EPAs will endanger the fragile processes of regional integration and expose ACP producers to unfair European competition in domestic and regional markets. The result will be deeper unemployment, loss of livelihoods, food insecurity and social inequality. ACP governments will face significant losses in public revenue from the elimination of import duties and will continue to suffer the problem of capital flight associated with liberalisation. While the European Commission argues that EPAs are 'instruments for development' all assessments so far indicate that the burden of adjustment for EPAs will be carried exclusively by the ACP countries, including those that are LDCs. The EU has narrowed down the Cotonou objectives of poverty eradication and sustainable development to a self-serving trade and investment liberalisation agenda. EPAs will increase the domination and concentration of European firms, goods and services. As such, EPAs will deepen - and prolong - the socio-economic decline and political fragility that characterises most ACP countries. EPAs based on reciprocal trade agreements do not make sense economically, or developmentally for ACP countries. Therefore, we reject these "Economic Partnership Agreements" as currently envisaged. We call for an overhaul and review of the EU's neo-liberal external trade policy, particularly with respect to developing countries. We demand that EU-ACP trade cooperation should be founded on an approach that is:

• based on a principle of non-reciprocity, as instituted in GSPs and special and differential treatment in the WTO
• protects ACP producers domestic and regional markets.
• reverses the pressure for trade and investment liberalisation
• allows the necessary policy space and supports ACP countries to pursue their own development strategies.

http://stopepa.org/stopepa/campaign_english.php

shit newstyle

you know how to keep a brotha bussy

anyways I appreciate your posts and I hope we will engage in deeper discussions about this issue later and I will have to devout couple of hours at night specifically to respond to your pills together with Tahliba

I was gonna post something of this in a new post but this caught my attention. Seems like the European Union are pushing these countries in Africa, Carribean and Pacific to cut down on expensive agreements with individual countries (fishing rights, trade rights, monetary system, etc) and deal with them by bulk like they due within the European Union. But I wanted to address the player(s) behind this trend. In the case of African specifically West Africa, the leaders there seem to follow the recommendations of one particular man who served as EU trade commisioner and now head of the WTO as director general. His name is

http://www.deltza.cec.eu.int/en/press_release/pascallamy.htm

EU AMBASSADOR WELCOMES PASCAL LAMY APPOINTMENT TO WTO

The Delegation of the European Commission in Dar es Salaam has welcomed the appointment of Pascal Lamy, the former EU Commissioner for Trade as the Head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Ambassador Frans Baan, the EU Head of Delegation in Tanzania congratulated the appointment saying that “Pascal Lamy is well placed to head such an organization given his vast experience and knowledge of trade matters, his concern for development and international standing.�

Mr Lamy now faces the uphill task of persuading WTO members to reach agreements on a range of thorny issues, including the question of farm subsidies by rich nations, in time for the planned WTO ministerial summit in Hong Kong in December. However, Mr Lamy is known for his track record of cutting export subsidies from European countries during his tenure as EU trade commissioner between 1999 – 2004. The move demonstrated his commitment to improving trade relations for developing countries while generating what he claimed to be “an unpopular response from even my own French compatriots.�

On the question of Africa and the WTO, Mr Lamy says, “The priority of the WTO has to remain the opening up of multilateral trade. But there is no doubt in my mind that regional economic integration is one of the building blocks to a better insertion of Africa into international trade. Africa needs to increase market size, either by increasing the surface or by increasing the depth of the market, which means more purchasing power. Increasing the depth is not for today - we must hope it's for tomorrow - but African countries can increase the surface of the market. And then investment will come.�

New trade map in the making

Regional integration and better cohesion with the world economy are
desirable aims but the path towards them is long, hard and littered with a
plethora of trade agreements, writes François Misser in Mali’s capital,
Bamako.

Africa is becoming a zone of much freer trade than seemed conceivable a
decade ago. One of the main tools for the reshaping of sub-Saharan
Africa’s economic map is the new generation of economic partnership
agreements (EPAs) being negotiated with the EU.

Blocs of west, central, east and south African states are discussing
reciprocal trade agreements compatible with World Trade Organization
(WTO) requirements, combined with EU support to help African economies to
adapt. Free trade is to be introduced progressively from 2008 until
2020, and the EU says it will open its markets more than its 78 African,
Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) partners, and dismantle its tariffs faster.

The man behind the concept, Pascal Lamy, a former EU trade commissioner and at the time of going to press a candidate for WTO director general, claims that the EPAs are as much about creating markets as they are about opening markets.

In Mali’s capital, Bamako, in April, the UK’s Peter Mandelson (Mr
Lamy’s successor as EU trade commissioner) told the Joint Parliamentary
Assembly of MPs from the EU and ACP states that the EPAs aimed to support
regional integration between the ACP countries and secure them further
market access in the EU. To achieve that, the EU will help to boost
their capacity. Larger markets and economies of scale, combined with the
removal of barriers, are expected to boost growth.

Mr Mandelson described the EPAs as “a 21st century response to
development challenges – ambitious, different, creative – incorporating the
best of development inventiveness, as well as development orthodoxy, in a
way that is fit for a new century�. They will provide a stable
framework for investors, and must be designed to complement and not contradict
the wider anti-poverty strategy spelled out in the Millennium
Development Goals, he said.

However, he conceded that rigorous European hygiene standards posed a
significant challenge for some ACP exports.




Picking teams


EPA implementation raises a number of practical problems. The EU’s
insistence that ACP states must choose only one regional group to
negotiate their EPA in, even if they belong to several (like Mauritius or
Democratic Republic of Congo) has created a dilemma for a number of African
countries.

At the June 2004 ACP summit in Maputo, Joachim Chissano, then ACP
chairman and Mozambican president, warned that the negotiations should
strengthen regional co-operation and not provoke the collapse of regional
organisations.

Member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC),
long seen as Africa’s best example of regional co-operation, have gone off
in different directions to negotiate their EPAs. Last July in Windhoek,
Namibia, the European Commission (EC) started talks with an SADC group
of only Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique, Swaziland and
Zambia. Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Malawi, the Democratic Republic
of the Congo and Madagascar (which might join the SADC in July)
preferred to negotiate within the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA)
configuration, which includes members of the Common Market for Eastern and
Southern Africa (Comesa) that do not belong to SADC.

As South Africa has its own separate Trade and Development Co-operation
Agreement with the EU, which came into force in May 2004, SADC member
states find that they are split into different trade regimes with the
EU.

The agreements promise to be extremely complex. The EPA for the
Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (Cemac) will have to
accommodate the EU’s Everything But Arms initiative, which allows goods to
enter Europe duty free, as well as benefits for low income countries,
island or landlocked states such as São Tomé e PrÃ*ncipe and Central African
Republic, and different treatment for middle-income countries such as
Gabon or Cameroon.




Monetary quagmire


Another issue to be overcome is the integration of countries with
different currencies into the same trading blocks. Within the SADC, the
members of the Southern African Customs Union peg their currencies to the
South African rand, while non-members do not. Only in Cemac do all the
states share a currency, the CFA franc which is pegged to the euro.

The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) has eight
members that belong to the CFA-using Western African Economic and Monetary
Union (WAEMU), while Nigeria, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone plan to create a second monetary union, the Western African
Monetary Zone (WAMZ), and later merge it with the WAEMU.

WAMZ member states have had difficulty in meeting convergence criteria,
such as the maximum fluctuation against the US dollar, and have
postponed the creation of their union to July 1.

The current weakness of intra-regional trade in western Africa (10% of
the total) may limit the benefits of monetary union. WAEMU states will
have to consider that a single currency would probably mean removing
the link between the western African CFA franc and the euro – France is
not prepared to extend its historic guarantee to such a large country as
Nigeria.

The EPAs, like any trade liberalisation exercise, will reduce state
revenues. Losses have been estimated at 5.3% for Botswana, 8.6% for
Namibia, 12.9% for Lesotho and 13.9% for Swaziland. Projections for the WAEMU
for the 2008-17 period put the loss of revenue at CFA Fr1460bn
($2.8bn). Ivory Coast would be the worst affected, with losses estimated at CFA
Fr526bn, followed by Senegal (CFA Fr444bn), Mali (CFA Fr54bn) and Benin
(CFA Fr122bn).

Mr Mandelson argued that “more reasonable� levels of import duty would
boost ACP state revenues. He said that the EU was prepared to help
restructure its partners’ taxation systems, and about €650m was earmarked
for capacity strengthening in ACP trade sectors. But the commissioner
still has to convince his African partners.




NGO concerns


EPAs face growing hostility from African groups that see them as an
instrument of globalisation that could wipe out their already weak
manufacturing and agricultural sectors. In a joint statement circulated in
Bamako in April, west African regional non-governmental organisations and
farmers’ associations call EPAs “a weapon of mass destruction against
African and ACP economies�.

Campaigners argue that trade liberalisation alone does not
automatically lead to positive development outcomes. ACP countries are being forced
to open up to EU goods before they are in a position to compete.

Ibrahim Coulibaly, chairman of the Association of Professional
Producers of Mali, fears that EPAs will increase Africa’s food deficit. “There
is no example in history of a country that managed to develop its
agriculture by opening its markets, especially when the game is biased by
the EU’s farm subsidies,� he says. “Even the import of products that we
don’t produce is already undermining our agriculture. Wheat is a case in
point. Its price is so low that the consumption of bread has expanded
all over the continent, to the detriment of sorghum and millet producing
farmers.�

The activists argue that Africa should seek to protect itself. They
cite the example of Cameroon, where at the beginning of the year local
poultry farmers managed to force their government to impose quotas on
imports of EU frozen chicken that were undermining the local poultry
sector.




CAP reform


One of the reasons for Africa’s concern about trade liberalisation is
that, although the EU claims that it wants to boost the competitiveness
of African producers, it is already showing reluctance to meet its
partners’ requests to be compensated for the consequences of the reform of
its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

This affects African sugar producers because the price of ACP sugar
exports to the EU is calculated on the EU’s internal intervention price.
CAP reform seeks to reduce subsidies to European domestic producers and
gradually reduce the intervention price. Swaziland’s sugar export
revenue could fall by up to 40% a year and Mauritius could eventually see
its earnings fall to €142m from €257m.

Another ACP concern is cotton. Mr Mandelson announced a package of
measures for cotton in Bamako. From early 2006, 65% of subsidies to
European farmers will be delinked from production levels. As a result,
European farmers are expected to produce less cotton, which should benefit
African cotton growers – although it is US subsidies, rather than European
ones, that are the campaigners’ biggest gripe. The EU will support
African cotton producers at the next ministerial conference of the Doha
round in December in Hong Kong.

Mr Mandelson said that although there would be losers among the ACP
states as a result of the CAP reform, those that could increase their
production and remain competitive would continue to reap benefits from
their exports to the EU.

Justifying killing of farmer and guaranteed free labor due to a WTO policy of "preference erosion" in Africa. Decribe the picture. Small farmer with great debt from last year and now this year for insufficient supplies grows what the Western world call cash crops. Spends a whole year of his life and family involved cultivating these crops to later find out it would not be sold at world market prices by the government but be undercutted by trade agreements. Take the undercut or leave it attitude. Basically these farmers spend a whole year of their lives as near free labor. The West gets cheap commodity to manufacture and sell at bargain prices to Western consumers.

Africa seeks WTO waiver on preferential trade arrangements

Nairobi, Kenya, 09/28 - African countries require a waiver from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules to continue to benefit from preferential trade arrangements, Kenyan Trade and Industry Minister Mukhisa Kituyi said here Tuesday.

According to him, African farmers still need protection to slow "preference erosion."

Africa exports some key products duty-free to the 25-member European Union (EU) market and has been benefiting from the EU-Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) sugar protocol, which allows them to sell sugar at higher prices above the international ceiling.

Also under the "Everything But Arms" deal, African countries export all products except arms to the European market while the US African Growth Opportunity Act, permits 35-elegible African nations to export goods, especially textile products duty-free to American market.

But some countries from other parts of the world have challenged these agreements and are pushing the WTO to apply its rules, which could end the existing preferential trade arrangements in two years` time.

"We are saying, slow down the level of preference erosion. We are seeking support under AGOA," Kituyi told journalists in Nairobi.

Speaking after closed-door talks with visiting American Deputy National Security Adviser Faryar Shirzad, the Kenyan Minister noted that the playing field had been eroded for African producers.

"As developing countries, we say the WTO is not a very good system but when it fails, the rich countries would dictate the rules of international trade which will not be fair to us (Africa)," Kituyi warned.

Meanwhile, Kenya, which chairs the WTO General Assembly would also chair the forthcoming WTO Ministerial conference in Hong Kong, which is expected to broker the stalled global trade talks.

The talks collapsed in 2003 in Cancun, Mexico when African ministers demanded that rich nations provide a framework to end the lavish agricultural subsidies showered on domestic farmers, which are hurting African farmers and distorting international commodity prices.

"We are offering a leadership role in the WTO not only at the level of politics but also at the technical levels," Kituyi said after his meeting with the US official, who is on a mission to galvanise support for the success of the Hong Kong WTO meeting.

Guinea-Bissau which is considered a firm qualifier and model nation of the West African Monetary Zone whose architect Pascal Lamy of WTO is pushing, is currently experiencing political transition and sickness within the population. With the power Pascal Lamy possesses he can petition WHO (World Health Organization) to get its experts on the scene to soothe the situation.


GUINEA-BISSAU: West Africa calls for world backing as president sworn in



© Pierre Holtz/IRIN

BISSAU, 3 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - West African leaders are urging quick international assistance for Guinea-Bissau, whose new president Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira was sworn in this weekend facing a massive cholera epidemic and fears of continuing political instability.

"Donors must help Bissau now, and without conditions," Senegal's Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio told reporters on Monday.

And a one-day summit of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) wound up in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Friday with a "call on the international community to fulfill its commitment to extend financial, technical and material assistance to Guinea Bissau."

But of the 17 heads of state invited to attend Vieira's ceremonial swearing-in, none was in attendance. As heavily-armed soldiers patrolled the streets, many of the country's leading politicians too stayed home, raising fears of a return to years of instability.

Vieira, a former military ruler with a history as an independence fighter against Portuguese rule, won 52 percent of the vote in the 24 July presidential election. In his inaugural speech, he also issued a plea for assistance in fighting the devastating cholera outbreak currently ravaging the tiny country, which has affected more than one percent of its 1.3 million people in less than four months.

The new president, wearing a black suit and red tie, pledged to consolidate national unity and the law while promising to modernise the country, defend freedom of expression and reform the army.

One of the six poorest countries in the world, according to the UN Human Development Index, Guinea-Bissau has been unable to pay its civil servants for the past three months and its health and education systems are in dire straits.

But probably the country's worst nightmare remains the fear of instability. This election was supposed to draw a line under years of trouble - a civil war in 1998-1999 followed by political instability and administrative chaos.

Absent at Vieira's inauguration also was his main challenger at the ballot box, Malam Bacai Sanha, the candidate of the ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) who trailed in second with 48 percent.

The PAIGC is split between its leadership, which refuses to recognise Vieira's victory, and other party members who do.

Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, who had rejected Vieira's election, has said he is ready to share power, yet the new head of state made no mention of Gomes Junior during his inaugural speech and on the streets of Bissau few believe that the head of state and the head of government will get on.

The PAIGC holds the most seats in parliament and also leads the transitional government, which is due to be replaced in coming weeks.

Vieira seized power in a coup in 1980 and went on to win the country's first multi-party elections in 1994 before being overthrown himself in 1999.

But this time around he appears to have the support of the military, with Armed Forces chief of staff Tagme Na Wai, Navy chief of staff Bubo Na Tchuto and Aniceto Na Flak, all behind him.

It seems true. It takes money to make money. Also its proper to experiment with the only tool to keep any nation together.


Obasanjo Launches N1000 Note, Urges CBN, Mint to Brace Up

This Day (Lagos)
NEWS
October 12, 2005
Posted to the web October 13, 2005

By Josephine Lohor
Abuja

President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday formally launched the new N1000 note, which is the last lap in the series of the approved higher denomination notes and challenged the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria Security Minting and Printing Company to brace up to added responsibility that would arise as Africa moves towards a common currency.

Speaking during the launch of the N1000 note in Abuja yesterday, President Obasanjo, said the reforms embarked by his administration would touch on all aspects of national life.

"As we move towards a common currency in West Africa and towards a Central Bank of Africa, we should prepare to gear ourselves to the possibility of taking on added responsibility both in the work of our own Central Bank and in terms of the work of our Security Printing".

"When we talk of reform, we made it clear that it would be comprehensive and all-embracing. That no aspect of our national life will be left out. I know that part of the reform that we have called for is being pursued vigorously by the Central Bank. I know how much effort has gone into producing the N1000 note that we launched today.

"The security feature was my own special concern when we were talking about this and until I was satisfied that the security features are sufficiently formidable to make forging the new note almost impossible. The issue of being locally self-sufficient I production of notes and other security documents is being vigorously pursued", he said.

Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Charles Soludo, who handed copies of the note in albums to the President and Vice President Atiku Abubakar, disclosed that "by the end of December 2006 all currencies and coins circulated in Nigeria will and must be produced by the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting including the N1000 notes".

Soludo, who led men and a woman of the Board of the CBN to the state House for the ceremony, disclosed that other currencies would also bear more modern features which the new note has, just like the Dollar and Euro, when the CBN embarks on currency restructuring which is presently on the table of discuss. He said that the new note is the only currency in the world that has a golden colour, just as it costs not more than N12 to print a piece, as compared to about N10 for the N500 note.

The CBN Governor also said that the new note would not cause inflation and it would be a "nightmare' to produce fake ones, noted that "the key features of the new N1000 note include the fact that the note has portraits of the first two indigenous Governors of the CBN, Alhaji Aliyu Mai Borno who was the first Nigeria Governor of the CBN between 1963 and1967, Dr. Clement Isong, 1967 to 75 who served at a critical time in the history of Nigeria. Both of them, now deceased, greatly contributed to what is today known as the Central Bank in terms of its history and growth".

Speaking further on some distinguishing features of the N1000 note, Soludo stated that "the new note which marks a departure from the existing notes is that it is protected by a number of sophisticated security features.

Some of these security features are sensed by touch, others are visible to the naked eye. The note has been vanished and would help in prolonging its lifespan". It would be recalled that the first three new higher denominations were issued in 1999, 2000 and 2001 respectively in line with powers vested on the President in Section 19 of the CBN Act 1991 as amended and also in pursuance of Section 17 of the CBN Act 1991 as amended which confers on the CBN, the right and powers to issue legal tender notes and currencies in Nigeria.