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Will the ECOWAS produce a new customs tariff consistent with its list of sensitive products On October 15th and 16th a meeting on the approval of the ECOWAS’ list of sensitive products will take place in Ouagadougou. All ECOWAS member states are to be represented. The meeting has been called after a series of preparatory activities in each of the member states as well as regional meetings. Now the ECOWAS’ Committee has produced a document that summarises this work and sets out its recommendations to the member states.
Among these recommendations the Committee proposes a list of products to be excluded from the liberalised trade between the European Union and the ECOWAS. It covers 35% of imports from the EU, a large majority of which are food or farm products. This percentage is nearly twice the rate proposed by the EU, which initially suggested a 20% exclusion and 80% free access rate. We can now note the long way the ECOWAS’ Committee has come; a little over a year ago it was still negotiating on the basis of EU proposals. However, under the pressure from the civil society, among others, the team of negotiators was reshuffled and their terms of reference clearly defined: “No more negotiations on a text proposed by the Europeans, but on a draft setting out the interests of the ECOWAS.” Further on the ECOWAS suggests a time schedule for freeing access for 65% of the remaining products over a period from 2009 to 2032, with the following remark: “A 23 year time span should ensure an acceptable transition, provided that the member states and the region undertake the necessary reforms and that such reforms and the related development programmes be given strong support by the European Commission and EU member states.” Is 23 years an acceptable time period? It is difficult for the civil society to give an answer. The outcome will depend on the political will that backs the decisions of ECOWAS governments. The present stance is however far better than the provisional agreement concluded by Ivory Coast, which accepted to give free market access to 80.8% of its imports from the EU over a 15 year period. It is therefore important that ECOWAS’ negotiators obtain an assurance that all provisional agreements be considered null and void when a regional agreement is signed. Can 23 years therefore be acceptable? This will depend upon a number of other factors. As is recognised in the sensitive products document, a list of such products can only be established in connection with a reform of the Common External (Customs) Tariff, CET. It was for this reason that we published a document last week on specific proposals for the CET to be applied by the ECOWAS, i.e. the need to protect regional agriculture by variable import taxes (See abc Burkina n° 300). The document clearly states that the list of sensitive products has been drawn up in the light of regional policies and of the ECOWAS joint agricultural policy (abridged ECOWAP). This policy has food sovereignty as its objective and requires protective measures for agriculture to this end. Therefore virtually all farm or food products have been included in the sensitive products list. If at the same time the ECOWAS avails itself of a new Common External Customs Tariff that enables it to safeguard its agriculture, then West Africa will have taken a big step forward towards food sovereignty, breaking away entirely from the decision taken by its members in January 2006 to extend the CET – much too low – of the West African Economic and Monetary Union to the entire ECOWAS area, whereby the ECOWAS’ agricultural policy would become a dead letter. Therefore the civil society must be on the alert and watch out for consistency in the decisions that are going to be made in the next few days. In the meantime the Committee on sensitive products must be congratulated upon the good work it has achieved. It is now up to the Committee, with the support of the civil society, to defend this work and its proposals and to not only convince the politicians to adopt the sensitive products list, but above all to enjoin them to adopt the relevant reform of the Common External Customs Tariff. Koudougou October 6th 2008 Maurice Oudet Director, SEDELAN |
