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Africa: 'No EU Pressure On Africa'
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Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)
12 August 2007
Posted to the web 13 August 2007
Jennifer Dube
AFRICAN countries and the European Union are going 50-50 in negotiations for a new trade deal between the two blocs, a senior trade negotiator with the Kenyan government said recently.
Addressing journalists at a Reuters Foundation workshop in Nairobi, David Nalo, the trade ministry's permanent secretary, dismissed as misconceptions sentiments that the EU was forcing African countries to finalise the deal before the end of this year.
"Europe has not pushed the 31 December 2007 deadline on us," he said. "It is part of the Cotonou agreement that we all agreed to and signed. The deadline was jointly agreed." Nalo said African states were eager to beat the deadline as they were negatively affected by the delayed conclusion of the new plan, known as the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).
"If we have finished 70% of it, we will put that on the table and sign it, because the world is not ending on 31 December. Whatever is remaining . . .we will negotiate and engage with the EU on how we deal with parts that are not concluded."
The Cotonou Agreement was signed in June 2000 between the EU and a group of African, Caribbean and Pacific states (ACP). It was signed in Cotonou (Benin) by 79 ACP countries and the then 15 EU states.
The deal has allowed ACP countries non-reciprocal market access to EU member states at preferential tariffs since 2000, meaning ACP did not have to give EU products market access in return.
The EU obtained a waiver from the World Trade Organisation until December 2007 for its deals with the ACP bloc countries, among them Zimbabwe.
This will change from January 1, 2008 because the EU now wants access for the goods and services offered by its member states to ACP countries.
Zimbabwe and 15 other countries in the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) group are negotiating the reciprocal free trade agreement (EPAs) with the EU.
Upon signing, the EPAs will open developing country markets to the products and services from the EU bloc, which now has 27 members. They cover trade issues in six fisheries, trade in services, and trade related services.
Critics of the plan have continuously argued that African countries are ill-prepared and would face detrimental effects from the deals, such as loss of much-needed revenue.
There have been sentiments that the EU was using "dirty tricks" to coerce ACP countries into concluding the deal before January 2008 with some critics even advising the African bloc not to sign it.
It has been estimated that the new deal would result in an overall loss of government revenue of about US $473 million.
Zimbabwe understandably stands to lose a staggering US$18.4 million in import tariff revenue if it adhered to the new provisions of the deal.
Kenya tops the losers' chart with the expected loss of US$107m, Sudan (US$73m), Mauritius (US$71m), Ethiopia (US$55m), Seychelles (US$24.9m) and Djibouti (US$37.5m).
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Other potential losers include the Democratic Republic of Congo (US$24.7m), Zambia (US$15.8m), Uganda (US$9.45m), Madagascar (US$7m), Burundi (US$7.660m), Eritrea (US$7.38m), Malawi (US$7m) and Rwanda (US$5.6m).
Nalo said research had shown the trade benefits to the East African Community (EAC) states comprising Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania will offset the revenue loss in that bloc after the new trade deal is concluded.
But the story looks different for Zimbabwe, currently battling a severe foreign currency crunch against an increased need to import almost everything, including maize, wheat, fuel and electricity.
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