Continent to Sign EU Market-Access Pact

Julius Barigaba (East African)—With barely five months to the expiry of the current trade arrangement between the European Union and Africa, Pacific and Caribbean countries, the East and Southern Africa region will sign only parts of the new trade pact, the Economic Partnership Agreement.

The current rules, contained in the EU-ACP Cotonou Agreement, which was signed in 2000, gave preferential market access to the EU to 77 ACP countries.

The agreement, which governs trade and development co-operation between the two blocs, expires in December.

However, the ESA region has agreed to prioritise negotiations on market access and development to meet the December deadline.

The grouping will sign pacts on the two issues and push negotiations on the other EPA issues beyond December.

“We are prioritising market access in order to be WTO-compatible. If we sign on market access we will then maintain our preferential access to EU markets,” said Emma Mutahunga, a trade policy analyst in Uganda’s Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry.

The EPA has six areas of concern that are being negotiated - market access, development, fisheries, trade in services, trade related issues and agriculture. Signing part of the EPA clusters is a strategy that the ESA group adopted at a regional negotiation forum in Port Louis, Mauritius, from August 3-5.

The strategy will enable the region to maintain its preferential access to the EU markets and, at the same time, remain compatible with World Trade Organisation rules, which require all countries to open up their markets.

This means that the next two forums of regional trade experts, as well as the ESA-EC ministerial meeting, will devote more discussion to market access, while the other pending clusters will be put on hold.

According to Mutahunga, once the region wraps up the deal for market access and development, it will then seek to negotiate the remaining clusters in 2008, since they do not impact on WTO rules.

At next ESA-EU meeting in September the region is expected to table its strategy to focus the talks on market access, but this could also be a tenable proposition for the EU.

Already, the EU has planned a proposal for duty-free quota-free market access for the ESA group, according to Peter Thompson, trade director at the EU Secretariat.

The EU wants countries in the region to respond to this proposal before the end of 2007.

“On market access for goods, the EU has an offer on the table. We have had indications from ESA on their approach, but have yet to see the details. It is something on which we must move forward quickly,” said Mr Thompson.

Uganda and 15 other countries from the ESA are negotiating the trade agreement with Europe and have two more regional meetings in which to wrap up the negotiations.

The negotiations started in 2004; they have to be concluded and the respective blocs have to sign the deal by December 31, or the ESA will lose European market access.

Mr Thompson says the African countries have had the offer since April, to be effective from the date of signing the agreement, with a transition period for sugar and rice, which ends in 2015 and 2010 respectively.

The African countries are expected to gradually open their markets for EU products with a phased removal of tariffs. Uganda currently exports products worth about $380 million to Europe annually.

But for the signing to take place, Africans say the EU must commit more development resources to the region to enable it to address production, infrastructure and marketing constraints. This is one of the issues that will dominate the remaining rounds of negotiations.

During the February ESA-EU ministerial meeting in Brussels, the conclusions on financing adjustment costs such as loss of revenue pointed to the need for the EU to provide 2 billion euros ($2.8 billion) by 2010.

These funds are to be available before the EPAs are signed, the Brussels meeting noted.

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