Public Agenda (Accra)
Boakye-Dankwa Boadi
10 October 2008
The Sixth African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) States Summit has resolved to take a second look at Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union (EU) with a view to making them more inclusive and to foster integration within the Group.
To this end, the Heads of State and Government would engage in high-level consultations on the EPAs with a number of European Union (EU) member states. This formed part of a three-point decision taken at the end of their two-day meeting in Accra on Friday.
They directed the President of the Council and Secretary-General of the Group to explore by the end of October 2008, modalities for conducting the high-level engagement with key stakeholders in the EU.
The Leaders also instructed the Council of Ministers to work on the creation of an ACP Free Trade Area (FTA).
President John Agyekum Kufuor, Current President of ACP, said they wanted the Agreements to reflect a strategic partnership that would be a win-win for all and not one of continued dependence on Europe.
He said the Summit, held under the theme; "Promoting Human Security and Development" took short and long term views of the current global challenges - climate change, soaring crude oil and food prices.
The deliberations, he noted, were going to significantly contribute to the shaping of the destiny of the global village. President Kufuor underscored the need for member countries to continue to interact and maintain their close relations and contacts.
About 2,000 delegates including Heads of State and Government of the 79-member-nation Group attended the Accra Summit. It came off at a critical time of turbulence on the global financial market.
The game being played between the ACP Group and the EU could be likened to a scenario our Elders observed: "Nomaa, nomaa ne asisirape agro yi, agro yi be ye agro pa ni?" - To wit: "Could the game that birds play with flying termites be a fair game?"
For those of you in tropical Africa you might have observed that after the first afternoon rain at the beginning of the rainy season, termites come out in their numbers and as they fly birds prey on them. The way the birds manoeuvre to catch the flying termites is a sight to behold rather than to tell.
Initial Split in the ranks of ACP Group
The ACP and EU game is being played between two unequal partners and it is interesting to observe that Ghana, which had broken ranks with the majority of the members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and together with Cote d'Ivoire signed partial EPAs with EU, was elected the President of the ACP Group.
This scenario caused Mr John Kaputin, Secretary General of ACP, to express regret about the split within the ranks of the Group with respect to the EPA negotiations at the opening session of the Summit.
He said instead of being a unifying factor, the EPA process had split the Group into States that have embraced the full EPAs and others that have doubts about the scope and content of the Agreements.
He said: "Addressing all contentious issues will smooth the way for the successful conclusion of the EPA process and produce an agreement that will be embraced by both sides."
The EU is seeking under the EPAs, a reciprocal trade regime with the ACP Group. This means EU would export its goods to the markets of ACP countries both quota and duty-free and in return would grant ACP countries similar access to EU markets.
Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire in December 2007 broke ranks with other members of the ECOWAS and initialled separate interim EPAs with the EU, pending conclusions of negotiations on the full deal.
Under the interim EPAs, 80 per cent of exports from EU into the developing countries would be on duty-free, tariff-free basis in exchange for 100 per cent market access for developing countries exports to the EU.
Mr Kaputin called on the Heads of State and Government to provide the political guidance and leadership in charting the best way forward taking into account the need to retain the EU as a key development partner.
President Kufuor in his welcoming address demanded that the ACP Group and EU partnership should look for new modalities that would facilitate their respective entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements competitively, profitably and with dignified interdependence.
He said fair international trade systems should be put in place to make the economies of developing nations productive enough to transform the lives and empower their peoples to take advantage of the ever-increasing opportunities to help them to integrate meaningfully into the world and impact positively on their development, adding, "the ACP wants a better life for all its peoples".
President Kufuor noted that human security and development needed to focus especially on the youth, who should be nurtured into the mainstream of globalization with competences and self-confidence, to feel as an equal partner in the market.
He said it was, therefore, unfortunate that donor assistance to complement resources of developing countries for institutional building and human resource development to transform their nations had not been substantial enough.
Another source of concern was that "aid" had tended to be given more as charity than an economic factor for development and for that matter had not been coordinated to make the requisite dent on their problems of poverty, unemployment, high levels of illiteracy and disease.
These shortcomings, he said, combined to incapacitate the developing countries in their efforts to add value to the raw material they produced.
President Kufuor said to be fair, it should be acknowledged that over the past decade the donor community had shown a stirring conscience through the United Nations system, especially the multi-laterals like the World Bank, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Group of Eight Industrialised Nations.
This, he said, could be seen from the promise to give 0.7 per cent of their Gross Domestic Product as Overseas Development Assistance. He, however, described the implementation as "scratchy", so far.
President Kufuor said; "the EPAs divide the solidarity that used to bind the ACP countries together under the pretext of giving regional emphasis to the relationship between the EU and the six ACP Regions".
He said the EPAs were also "threatening to deprive members that do not sign by giving deadlines, which could prove catastrophic to our fragile economies".
Apparent Change of Ghana's Stance
This apparent change of stance by Ghana was a pleasant surprise to civil society groups that have been calling on the Leadership of ACP countries to reject the EPAs outright.
They have been arguing that the EPAs as currently structured were set to continue and even carry further the destabilising elements that have rendered the economies of developing countries dependent on aid.
They have been asking the ACP Leadership to take cognisance of the fact that the free market principles on which the EPAs rested, had for the past three decades failed to deliver the promised prosperity.
The civil society groups have also been questioning the intended removal of customs duties now or in the future, saying it would severely weaken the revenue base of governments and destroy the industrial base of ACP countries.
Trade Unions oppose EPAs
A coalition of three labour organisations - African Regional Organization of International Trade Union Confederation (AROITUC), Ghana Trade Union Congress (GTUC) and the Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL) also called on the Summit to renounce all interim and comprehensive EPAs and to resolve to negotiate fresh EPAs on 'reciprocal goods only' with the EU.
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