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AFRICA COULD LOSE BIG IN ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS WITH EU
Aileen Kwa
MARCH 2009 (IPS) - 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//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, NEW ZEALAND, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND,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// (END/2009)
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