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Ngwenya urges EU to deal fairly with Africa

Ngwenya urges EU to deal fairly with Africa
Written by Florence Bupe
Friday, October 16, 2009 2:19:00 AM

COMMON Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) secretary general Sindiso Ngwenya has challenged the European Union (EU) to come up with a realistic approach in its partnership with Africa.

During the third EU – Africa Business Forum recently, Ngwenya said the economic rules set by the union were often extremely unrealistic.

“Those who have developed make the rules, climb the ladder, and once up, remove it and expect us to climb without it. They expect us to climb at the same pace when the ladder is no more there, they have gone through the same paths but expect us to simply summersault over,” Ngwenya said. “Quite often we find this approach dishonest.”

The business forum was held under the theme ‘On the Road to New Win- Win Partnerships’.

Ngwenya said the approach under the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), for instance, should be transparent and easy to use.

He said the approach should be based on rules of origin that would improve market access of African countries into the European Union and promote diversification of production for modern manufacturing processes.

“Under EPAs, it will be difficult for a Kenyan manufacturer, for example, to source copper cathodes from Zambia for value addition and be able to export to EU under the current proposal,” he said.

Ngwenya also pointed out that the continued imbalances in trade between African countries and the EU had continued to hamper trade development.

“African trade and investment is hampered mainly by the high costs of doing business. In the Comesa region, trade has continued to rise in favour of the EU. Trade between us (Comesa region) and EU is for the benefit of EU,” he said.

Ngwenya further called for a review of the economic partnership approach if emerging markets were to benefit more meaningfully.

“As I speak today, we don’t see any substantial increase in investment from the EU to our region, what we see is increase from China, Indian and other Asian countries. Unless we understand the background, we shall not be able to move forward,” said Ngwenya.

Labels: COMESA, EU, SINDISO NGWENYA

posted by MrK @ 1:17 AM