| EU’s gains and losses in negotiations of Economic Partnership Agreements |
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On 19 January, the European Parliament (EP) adopted a resolution on the Interim Economic Partnership Agreement (IEPA) between the EU and New Guinea and Fiji, the only members of the Pacific regional grouping having approved an agreement as yet. Both countries have significant exports to the EU and decided to sign the IEPA, in order to secure their preferential trade access to the European market. In its resolution, the Parliament inter alia highlights the importance of the IEPA in contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by promoting sustainable development and poverty reduction. It furthermore calls upon the EU and its member states to stick to their trade assistance commitments, agreed upon in the 2007 EU Strategy on Aid for Trade. With the adoption of the resolution, the EP gave the green light for the Council of the EU to conclude the IEPA with the two Pacific states. It is hoped, that other members of the Pacific grouping will follow the example of New Guinea and Fiji and also sign an IEPA, enabling the negotiations of one single Economic Partnership Agreement for the whole region. Ghana’s government announced last week that it was looking forward to signing an IEPA with the European Union this year, after its efforts to pursue a regional Partnership agreement within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) floundered, as the regional group failed to come to a consensus on critical issues concerning the EPA negotiations. “In any year, at least 40% of our exports go to the European Union, and therefore for us the EU is a significant trading partner. So notwithstanding the fact that as a regional entity we are unable to make progress, we certainly have to protect our access to markets” stated Ghana’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Hanna Tetteh. “We are not able to benefit from the same kind of arrangements as the countries within ECOWAS that are LDCs and can benefit from the everything but arms initiative, and so necessarily we have to look at things differently”, Tetteh concluded. However critics of the EU’s approach to EPAs point to recent events in Tunisia as evidence that the EU’s trade agreements are not all that is claimed. Tunisia has often been cited by the EU as a successful example of liberalisation. Last week’s events, and the revelations of the extent of corruption and practices of the ousted President, call into question these claims. Sources:
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