Maravi

Mutati to base EPA talks on development

Mutati to base EPA talks on development
By Kabanda Chulu
Wed 04 Nov. 2009, 04:01 CAT

ESA Grouping chairperson and Zambian commerce minister Felix Mutati has said the development dimension and not market access must be the basis of the ongoing negotiations under the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) to be signed soon with the European Union.

And Mutati has expressed optimism that Malawi will sign interim EPAs despite President Bingu wa Mutharika’s comments that his country will not be part of the EPAs in their current format since the intention of Europe was to divide Africa.

Despite Europe’s insistence that EPAs would foster regional integration and allow free trade market reciprocal arrangements, the opposite seems to be happening as could be seen by recent development.

Last month in Mauritius, four out of the 11 Eastern and Southern African (ESA) countries signed interim EPAs hence indicating that the grouping was on the verge of disintegration instead of enhancing integration and unity.

However, Mutati said following the Mauritius meeting, there have been attempts to narrow differences and challenges among those countries that did not sign.
“As chair, Zambia is supposed to coordinate and we shall base our negotiation on development as first priority and market access will be second because we have things to consider such as infrastructure development and addressing challenges of competitiveness and supply side constraints,” said Mutati.

When asked that countries that did not sign in Mauritius committed to sign by October 31, 2009, Mutati responded that the ESA region was not using time factor as a pressure point to attract member countries to sign interim EPAs.

“Time is running out as per our commitment in Mauritius but there are still differences in perspectives hence the need for patience and if we rush to sign, we may not get the outcome we want and we don’t want to use time as pressure point especially when dealing with sovereign states because countries are also consulting their citizens and these processes takes time,” Mutati said. “And this is why we want to engage Malawi to find out what fears they have and what can be done to address the challenges. After engaging Malawi, hopefully by next week that is when we shall meet the EU and set a timeframe to sign interim EPA.”

Despite the optimism from Mutati, it is clear that EPAs would not bring development especially that the EPA are based on a flawed neo-liberal macro economic theory which does not take into account unequal power relations between rich and poor countries.

Initially the ESA region was designed to involve Eastern and Southern African countries, but some countries broke away to start negotiating EPAs under East African Community (EAC), SADC and ESA. With these differences, EPAs would only result in disintegration and not regional integration.

Labels: EPAs, FELIX MUTATI

posted by MrK @ 5:02 AM