“Going ahead right away with the EPAs is not the solution”

The Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, Mr Tertius Zongo held his first press conference on June 12, 2007 in Ouagadougou.

Questioned about his stance on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), Mr Zongo said: ”The EPAs is an urgent issue for our countries. To enter the world market is a move that has to be prepared. If we open our markets without sufficient preparation, it will harm many of our economic and social sectors. To get into a partnership agreement right away is not the solution.”

We are happy to hear a West African prime minister say this, in particular since he is the prime minister of the government of Blaise Compaoré, who is also the president in office of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS. It seems to me that we are back to “the spirit of Cancún”. Back to the spirit that prevailed among African states at the time of the Cancún conference and which made the Trade Minister Benoît Ouattara declare: “We can not blindly sign just any text out of the blue” But the EPAs in their present shape (proposed by the European Union) is precisely that. If it is true that “going ahead right away with the EPAs is not the solution”, the groundwork must first be done to obtain the best possible Economic Partnership Agreements for the countries and populations of West Africa.

What is most urgently required, I believe, is to send a strong signal to the European Union. It must be clearly stated that the ECOWAS does not intend to sell out, but that it has every intention of protecting itself, just as much as the great and powerful, including the European Union and the United States!

The signal could go out in two steps:

• Introduction of a 50% tariff band in the CET (the Common External Customs Tariff) of the ECOWAS, in particular to defend its joint agricultural policy (ECOWAP).

• Confirmation of a political will to implement the ECOWAP by making large use of the reference to the categories of “special products” and “sensitive products”: (“Special products” in WTO language meaning the list of products that developing countries have a right to exclude from market access, plus some other important products which may also be excluded from the demands of the EPAs, the so called sensitive products). A number of studies show that in a trade agreement such as the EPA, the ECOWAS could confine itself to opening its market to 50% of its products, still complying with WTO rules (see also abc Burkina 183 ).

President Blaise Compaoré has shown strong determination in defending African cotton both in the United States and in the WTO. If he would take on a fight today, with the support of his Prime Minister, to save the joint West African agricultural policy and to achieve recognition of the right to food sovereignty in West Africa, that fight would certainly gain its page in history.

Koudougou, June 18, 2007

Maurice Oudet

Director, SEDELAN