EU accused of undermining UN development goals through free trade
EU Observer, Brussels
EU accused of undermining UN development goals through free trade
By Leigh Phillips
10 April 2008
A group of NGOs, trade unions and civil society groups have accused the EU of undermining global poverty reduction goals through its pursuit of free trade deals with African states.
Gathered outside the European Commission building in Brussels on Wednesday, the demonstrators said that UN goals to eradicate poverty by 2015 were being threatened by the EU’s programme of economic partnership agreements (EPAs) and bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) with their governments.
The UN goals, known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), consist of eight goals aimed at eradicating poverty, promoting human and social development and ensuring environmentally sustainable development across the globe. They were agreed by 189 United Nations members in 2000.
"Through the EPAs and the FTAs, the EU contradicts its commitments to development and the MDGs by forcing developing countries to open their markets to European firms with which they cannot compete," said John Hilary, of the UK-based aid group War on Want.
"Twenty years ago, for example, some 90 percent of rice in Ghana was grown in Ghana. Today, liberalisation forced upon the country by the rich world has resulted in only 10 percent of the rice that is eaten in Ghana having been grown there, and so the country cannot develop a domestic strategy to deal with soaring food prices.
Dot Keet, of the Africa Trade Network, said: "The promise of aid or the threat of withholding aid weighs more on the minds of African governments than the promise of market access. This is why many of them feel they have to sign these agreements.
"Many government officials have openly acknowledged that they won’t benefit from increased market access. Their most immediate problem is the potential loss of aid."
Ms Keet’s words were an echo of comments from the secretary-general of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of nations, John Kaputin, who said on Monday (7 April), that the EU had pressured countries to agree to clauses in Economic Partnership Agreements that were harmful to development interests.
"The race towards the deadline of December 31, 2007 [by which point EPAs had to be signed] was fraught with panic, confusion and frustration," he said.
"In the end, only 35 out of 77 countries initialled interim or full EPAs. Many more may not have initialled, but were held captive by the possibility of trade disruption that would have followed if they had not initialled," he added.
EU failing on aid promises
The NGOs’ criticism comes as new figures released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) show that EU member states are failing to meet pledges to increase aid - part of achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
The figures showed that aid from Europe dropped last year for the first time since 2000.
EU aid amounted to 0.38 percent of gross national income (GNI) in 2007, down from 0.39 percent of GNI in 2006. This translates to a total of €47.7 billion in 2006 and €46.1 billion in 2007 - a drop of €1.7 billion.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Wednesday (9 April) called on member states to recommit to pledges made in 2005 to increase development aid to 0.56 percent of GNI by 2010 and 0.7 percent by 2015. Only the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Luxembourg have already met or exceeded the target of spending 0.7 percent of GNI on aid.
He said the figures revealed "some worrying, even dangerous tendencies."
"The consistent gap between rhetoric and reality from member states to poor countries cannot be allowed to continue", said Luis Morago, head of development NGO’s Oxfam’s EU office.
"Europe has committed many times in the past to increasing its aid. Unless a massive improvement is seen in 2008, there’s no way that Europe’s targets to reduce poverty will be met," he added.
