Charity Addo & Naa Betty Nelson
2 October 2008
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Ghana Federation of Labour have urged Heads of States at the on-going African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) summit to take firm decisions on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
The groups have, therefore, appealed to the Heads of State attending the summit not to give their consent to the EPA. At a joint press briefing organized by the two groups in Accra yesterday, the General Secretary of the ITUC, Mr. Kwasi Adu-Amankwah noted that the European Union (EU) had the aim of destroying the market environment of the ACP countries.
"The proposal to have free trade agreement between the EU and the countries of ACP is not acceptable, given the huge developmental gap between the two parties," he noted.
He further pointed out that if the ACP countries sign the EPA agreement, the EU would be depriving ACP governments the capacity of supporting promising domestic enterprises from growing and nurturing infant industries.
Describing the agreement as a "Modern Day Slavery", Mr. Adu-Amankwah, who was addressing the press, indicated that the EU sought to render government of ACP countries ineffective, by taking away their regulatory powers with which they could initiate and influence the long term development plans of their countries.
"The EU has refused to listen to the concerns of ACP countries and has mounted pressure on our countries to succumb to their interest. Their posture, throughout the negotiations suggests that they know what is good for us and our countries. This is not true and should not be accepted," he stressed.
"We therefore call on the Heads of State of ACP to reclaim the destiny and sovereignty of our countries by taking a collective decision on EPA's. Our Heads of State and government have the power to act and the time to take a decision," he exclaimed.
Talking about the tariffs, which will be removed from exported and imported goods, the General Secretary of the ITUC said 80% of tariffs and custom duties would be removed, noting that it would deny ACP countries of their most reliable source of revenue, since ACP countries rely on customs duties for more than half of their revenue.
"Blocking this revenue source would further weaken the ability of ACP states to invest in social services that would benefit the poor and go further to decimate our already small production base, wipe employment and livelihoods and undermine all efforts towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)," he said.
Mr. Adu-Amankwah further urged the heads of states to renounce all interim and comprehensive EPAs and resolve to negotiate and agree on non-reciprocal goods only.
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