Non-State Actors Warn Against Unequal Partnership

4 September 2010
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Economic Community of West African States (Abuja)
press release

Abuja - Nigeria — Representatives of the West African Civil Society and Private Sector organisations on Friday, 3rd August, 2010 advised against signing an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) without building the capacities of the region to avail itself of its benefits and cope with the challenges.

This was one of the outcomes of the second phase of a stakeholder workshop designed to apprise the region's stakeholders of the status of the process and involve representatives of the region's civil society and the private sector in the process. West Africa is insisting on the significant contribution of the EU to an EPA Development Programme (EPADP), a fund that will enable it deal with the adjustment costs for the implementation of the impending EPA through the improvements in regional infrastructure and other related facilities.

Participants noted the importance of dealing with the development dimension of the impending agreement which would enable the region improve its competitiveness and better integrate into the global economy. They therefore appealed to the region's negotiators to ensure that additional resources are forthcoming from the EU for the financing of the EPADP. The focus on the EPADP as part of the on-going negotiation of an EPA, which was launched in 2003, is intended to provide a coherent reference framework for the implementation of priority activities in order to take advantage of the opening of the market with the EU. The participants applauded the region's negotiators for doing well considering the stands they have taken to ensure the best interests of the region and then urged them to take necessary steps to ensure that the Community and Solidarity Levies are not scrapped. Community Levies are used to fund the activities of ECOWAS and the sister West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA).

They criticized the idea of the MFN Clause of the agreement, which requires that concessions to other partners be extended to the EU, as this could undermine the regions potentials for trade with other partners. They therefore urged the ECOWAS and UEMOA Commissions to organise a brainstorming session that will generate the best strategy for the creation of a legal framework on trade relations between West Africa and China. Such text they said should protect the prerogative of the region to engage in trade relation with other partners. Among others, the participants implored the Commissions to take appropriate measures to inform the States about the preliminary results of the EPA implementation in the Caribbean with a view to drawing lessons from them for the benefit of the West African region. The meeting is the second in a three-part sensitization workshop organised to seek the collaboration of the various stakeholders in the process. The first was held with regional lawmakers while the third phase will involve representatives of the academia and the media

Read the original article on Ecowas.

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