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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

Tanzania: Dar Should Be Wary of the EPA Agreements

2 December 2007

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opinion

Dar es Salaam — The signing of Economic Partnership Agreement between East African countries and European Union, early this week in Kampala, has divided the region into two different groups.

While the first group strongly believes that EPA deal is a breakthrough to trade prosperity between the region and Europe, the other group views this state with cautionary eye, insisting that this is another big blow to poor countries mainly from Africa.

Those supporting EPA are mainly government officials and their stand is that it was high time Africa opened its trade borders to the key trading partners like European countries.

They believe that a poor farmer from Kilimanjaro or Mwanza region can compete fairly with a heavily subsidised farmer from Holland or Austria under the so called trade liberalisation era.

But the question here is; is EPA deals a breakthrough to Africans or it is another breed of industrial revolution and globalisation?

In 19th century, industrial revolution took place in Europe following the advancement of technology and the growth of mercantile trade. This situation caused the scramble for and partition of Africa, and finally what happened was the colonisation of this continent.

Nearly one century after the industrial revolution which devastated Africa's economy, in 1990s, the rich nation begun to push for the agenda of economic liberalisation which they finally came to name 'globalisation'.

They have managed to push for the so called trade liberalisation under the umbrella of globalisation and finally the whole world is becoming globalised.

But at the end of the day the main casualty here is Africa, which pays heavy price because its farmers and industrialists cannot compete effectively with their counterparts from the developed world.

In entering globalisation, African leaders hurried to sign the contracts without conducting a comprehensive review on how such deals will benefit the continent and its people.

While Africa was still nursing the wounds of globalisation, European countries introduced what they described as Economic Partnership Agreement aimed at liberalising trade between the two sides.

This week again, we, in the East African countries, have signed this deal as a single block.

While Tanzanian government was quick to commend the deal, with trade and industry minister Basil Mramba insisting that EPA was a milestone ahead aimed at giving a breakthrough not only to EU traders but also to local traders, the facts on the grounds shows the opposite.

It is misleading to convince the world that a heavily subsidised farmer in Europe can compete fairly with his or her counterparts from Tanzania who is still dependent on the outdated technology without having any subsidy from the government.

In Europe, a cow gets US$2 per day as subsidy while at the same time majority of Africans live below a dollar per day. Can a livestock keeper in Europe compete fairly with unfunded farmer from Mwanza, Mbeya, Arusha or Kilimanjaro?

What will take place is that East African region will be flooded with goods manufactured in European countries following this trade pact and our local farmers and industrialists will suffer heavily. Industries will be closed down because they can't compete anymore with highly developed nations.

The closure of these industries means the nation is going to lose thousands of jobs while at the same time farmers also risk their markets.

International and local voices have been raised to oppose the EPA deals, but their cries are like crocodile tears that are always swallowed by the lake or river.

Trade is one of the most powerful forces linking our lives, and a source of unprecedented wealth. Yet the benefits are not being shared equally especially in the poor countries with millions of the world's people being left behind.

One of the reasons Africans have failed to benefit from lucrative trade deals sealed previously, is that our leaders sign these deals blindly without doing a thorough research to understand the negative and positive impacts.

Today in Tanzania, we are suffering from mining contracts signed blindly by our leaders. Like what they have done in EPA, after signing these shady deals, our ministers organise press conferences to commend their efforts of sinking the nation deeper into troubles.

But few years later, we come to establish that all these deals are punching our nation economically, forcing the government to form review commissions.

It is for this reasons, we would like to advice our leaders to take more time and go through the EPA pact before rushing into concluding that these deals are fit for Tanzanians and Africa in general.

From industrial revolution to EPA deals, it is high time our leaders stopped signing contracts blindly, to avoid what happened to Chief Mangungo of Msovero who sold his piece of land to German colonialists without knowing.

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