Kampala — Over 15 fair trade lobby organisations have warned the East African Community leaders against signing the Framework Economic Partnerships Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union.

The Framework Economic Partnerships Agreement between the European Union and the East African Community is scheduled to be signed today in the Tanzanian capital of Dar-es-Salaam, despite widespread criticism.

Among the critics of the agreement are former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa and Malawian president Bingu wa Matharika. "We are calling on our governments to rethink the EPAs. The EPAs we are entering into are based on the same ideology of the Washington consensus of market fundamentalism which promote the neo-liberal policies of deregulation, liberalisation and privatisation.

"These policies have been discredited by the current global financial and economic crisis and even the architects of these policies, the EU and the US, have abandoned them while responding to the global economic crisis," reads a joint statement by the group.

Among the contentious issues of concern to fair trade lobbyist in the agreement are limitations imposed on the East African countries to levy export taxes and automatic extension to EU countries of any trade concession East African countries offer to other countries.

Ambassador Nathan Irumba, the executive director of the Southern and Eastern African Trade and Negotiations Institute, argued that there is no need for the East African Community to be hurried into an agreement without resolution of major issues of concern.

EU is reforming its trade deals with the African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries, which have existed for over a half a century.