New threats on Africa : the EPAs

Here is a new acronym we will have to get to know before it is too late! It stands for Economic Partrnership Agreements (EPAs). These are Agreements that EU wants to set with the ACP countries (African, Caribbean and Pacific countries), as part of the program of the Cotonou Agreement.

For West Africa, the second step of the negotiations started in Cotonou, on October 06, 2003. But only a few initiated are aware of it. Is this the way we can give a share to civil society in those negotiations? And yet, what is at stake is not small. What is at stake is to set free trade areas between Europe and some areas that will be defined during the next negotiations.

We are worried, because it appears that EU tries everything to get those Agreements, contemptuous of the legitimate wish of the ACP countries. When the ACP countries asked that the question of agriculture be put in the programs of those negotiations, Europe refused. It just said that agriculture would be treated over in the program of market access! Now, what is urgent for the ACP countries, and particularly for West African countries, is not to have an access to EU market, but to protect the sovereign right to have access to their own market. It seems that the spirit of Cancun should be hold at all cost. What happened over there?

- The group ACP, African Union, and the LDCs (Last Developed Countries) united together in order to defend their interests at Cancùn.

- At Cancun, those four organisations discovered that their points of view on agriculture and development emerged: that is, safeguarding their agriculture is a vital question, and therefore they cannot take new agreements as long as their right to protect their agriculture through import taxes is not acknowledged.

- At Cancun, the alliance – particularly on the cotton question – between civil society and African governments has strengthened the negotiation ability of the latter.

- The fourth element is summed up by M. Benoît Ouattara, The Trade Minister of Burkina Faso: «We must learn our lesson from our failure and understand that, from now on, we cannot sign any text with our eyes shut».

We believe that it is very important that those four elements be present all along the negotiations with EU to set those Economic Partrnership Agreements.

That means that the ACP countries must remain united during those negotiations.

That means also that we should not open our markets to EU before the acknowledgement of one condition: the food sovereignty of the areas defined by those markets, priority being given to the right of access to one’s own market.

In order that these rights be better protected, we believe that an alliance between African States and their civil societies is necessary. This supposes that African States resist the temptation to set a civil society to their own convenience, but rather that they let the civil society organise itself, that they transmit to them the necessary informations and open a dialogue with them without reservation.

Only then, the spirit of Cancun will continue and African States will be stronger to negotiate. And there will be no more threat.

Maurice Oudet, Bamako October 27, 2003