Accra — West African Ministers negotiating the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union have referred outstanding issues to the ECOWAS Council of Ministers for further directives on the negotiations.
After a one-day crucial meeting of the Ministerial Monitoring Committee (MMC) in Accra, Ghana on 30th November 2011, the ministers resolved to send the divergent issues to the Council which constituted the MMC to coordinate the negotiations for the region. The negotiations, launched in 2004 for a free trade area of the two regions were expected to have been concluded in 2007, but the process has run into hitches over disagreements on some issues.
The disagreements relate to the financing of the EPA Development Programme (EPADP), a US$16-billion programme for addressing the costs of adjustment and implementation of the EPA in West Africa; the status of the Community Levy which funds ECOWAS programmes; the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) Clause as well as the scope and timetable for the dismantling of the regional market. In order to avoid losing the preferences they enjoy in goods export to countries of the EU, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana signed an interim agreement with the EU in December 2010 which is expected to lapse with the conclusion of the regional negotiations.
Regional leaders have requested for a credible source of funding the programme in fresh funds from the EU which instead wants it to be funded from existing funds under the European Development Fund (EDF) and other sources. There are also disagreements over the scope of opening of West Africa's markets to products from the EU which is insisting on an 80-per cent market access over 12 to 15 years contrary to West Africa's offer of 70 per cent of its market to be liberalized over 25 years West Africa is worried that opening it's market so widely over a short period will result in the swamping of the region with products from the EU, a situation that could virtually destroy West Africa's burgeoning industries including its agriculture which will suffer from subsidized products from the EU. At the opening of the MMC, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, His Excellency James Victor Gbeho said the region was growing impatient with the protracted negotiations against the background of the changing regional and international economic environment. He said the only way to guarantee progress was through unity of purpose so as to ensure that the process promoted the regional integration agenda and the paradigm shift intended in its relations with the EU.
The president was emphatic that the time has come to reflect on what has been achieved with a report to regional leaders for a decision on the next step on the negotiations. Ghana's Minister of Trade and Industry, Honourable Hannah Tetteh spoke in the same vein saying that the region has reached a cross-road over the negotiations, with the looming possibility being left with multiple trade regimes in the aftermath of the non-conclusion of a regional Agreement. She also highlighted impediments to intra-community trade, which hovers between 11 and 15 per cent, adding that the situation should be redressed to boost the regional economy.
The minister noted that Member States by trading more among ourselves, the region would become more prosperous and less reliant on external trade, stressing that the illegal levies and other obstacles to business, which are at variance with the vision of ECOWAS founding fathers must be dismantled to boost intra-regional trade.
Nigeria's Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr. Samuel Ortom who chaired the meeting emphasized the need to conclude the EPA negotiations by December 2012 while efforts should be intensified to carry out all the necessary studies required for fact-based arguments and decisions related to the process.
