Maputo — The European Union yesterday accused NGOs of making it difficult for civil society to understand and support its negotiations with African regions to create fair economic partnership agreements (EPAs) by labelling the processes the "re-colonisation" of the continent.

Addressing an information seminar on the EPA negotiations between the EU and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Fabio Fabbi communications head of the European Commission's trade directorate said it was unfortunate that some NGOs in Africa and Europe were campaigning against the agreements and describing them as a "devastating assault on Africa".

"It is not true that EPAs equals re-colonisation of this continent (Africa), the Caribbean and the Pacific countries but the campaign has made us realise that we need to go out to business and civil society structures in these areas and explain all aspects of the agreements and how they will improve people's lives," he said.

Some of the EPAs provisions have raised the ire of international lobby groups who accuse the EU of negotiation in bad faith by insisting to protect some of its markets particularly the agricultural sector which is seen as essential for the development of rural communities especially in Africa.

Fabbi said some of the complaints were driven by emotion and not supported by facts. He said efforts were being done to ensure that people understood the advantages of the alignment of the rules of trade according to the regulations set buy the World Trade Organisations (WTO).

He said various programmes will be implemented to ensure that entrepreneurs were empowered to take advantages of the EPAs which will give local businesses almost free access to EU markets. While there were some restrictions in certain commodities, the commission trade directorate has done much better in removing trade barriers for the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.

Jurgen Hoffmann, Namibian special trade advisor attributed the resistance about the trade agreements to the failure by governments and the commission trade directorate to involve civil society structures and business. He said the inability to explain the concepts to people opened the EPAs to various interpretations which could lead to communities being seriously opposed to trade agreements.

Zodwa Mabuza CEO of the Federation of Swaziland Employers and Chamber of Commerce said it was unfortunate that the negotiations for EPAs were restricted to bureaucrats and governments. Although the agreements were supposed to help business individuals with exports and imports, there was hardly an effort by the region to take business into their confidence and explain how their businesses would be affected during the process.

Jacques Wunenburger, head of the commission's trade directorate, said some of the resistance to trade agreements and the negative sentiments came from ignorance. He said those opposed were unwittingly trying to maintain an unfortunate history where African countries had to only trade with their former colonial masters for decades. There was hardly economic integration and inter trade between them and now that the WTO was trying to level the playing fields and expose countries to conditions of fair trade, some lobby groups were opposing. They were also aiding institutions that "benefited from monopolies" which stand to lose from competition and fair trade among nations.

He also admitted that some small business in the continent needed to be assured that everything would be done to improve their production capacity so that their products met the required standards before shipping them to international markets.

"The fear of the unknown is always there and it is important for countries to address these issues and assure their communities that change is good and is for the better," Wunenburger said.