Maravi

EPAs should foster regional integration, says Sichinga

COMMENT - Vital Moreira is one arrogant a-hole. Right on for minister Sichinga for standing up for the Zambian economy within the framework of EPAs and 'free trade'.

EPAs should foster regional integration, says Sichinga
By Kabanda Chulu
Tue 27 Mar. 2012, 12:58 CAT

ZAMBIA will not sign a full Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU if various contentious issues are not addressed, says commerce minister Robert Sichinga. The 77-African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) member countries, including Zambia, have been negotiating the EPAs with the EU from 2002 that will enhance trade, provision of full market access and free trade market reciprocity arrangement.

But conclusion of the matter has remained elusive due to various misunderstandings such as EPAs being based on a flawed neo-liberal macroeconomic theory which does not take into account unequal power relations between rich and poor countries.

There are also fears that EPAs would only result in disintegration and not regional integration looking at the fragmentation that has resulted in some member states negotiating bilateral trade agreements with the EU for fear of losing market access.

During a meeting with the a delegation from the European Union (EU) parliament in Lusaka, Sichinga, who is also chairperson of the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) configuration that is negotiating economic free trade and reciprocal agreements with Europe said Zambia and several other countries would not sign EPA that would be based on 'a horse and a rider' relationship.

"The EU is an important trading partner and we remain committed to the EPA process since it is our belief that a development-friendly EPA can contribute to the sustainable development of our economies but the absence of binding commitment on development is keeping us apart. And we want EPAs to foster regional integration and not undermine it," Sichinga said.

"Also the insistence by the EU to limit our policy space to use export taxes for industrialisation is stalling the EPA negotiations because how do we finance our budgets without taxes and we cannot agree to being vetoed by EU on this issue and we are not going to sign anything that ties us down but we want flexibility in EPA."

And EU parliament international trade committee chairman Vital Moreira said Europe had shown much flexibility on the EPA.

"No partner could claim ownership of multilateral agreement and the design of the EPA is to encourage regional integration but five years has elapsed since agreement was to come into force and agreements are achieved within reasonable time limit, so it is either we have the EPA or not but least developed countries will still enjoy market access under the everything but arms agreement but I don't think there are countries that want to remain LDCs," he said.

Labels: EPAs, EU, NEOLIBERALISM, REGIONAL INTEGRATION, ROBERT SICHINGA

posted by MrK @ 7:13 PM