Namibia: EPA pain in the butt
Namibia Economist (Windhoek) | 7 December 2007
Namibia: EPA Pain in the Butt
Government’s refusal to sign the interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) has thrown a challenge to the private sector, which had put too much trust on the Cotonou Agreement by regarding European markets as the only export destination.
In giving the reasons behind Namibia’s refusal, as well as South Africa’s, Trade Minister Immanuel Ngatjizeko said exporters must start considering other markets such as the Americas, China and other African countries.
Government, for its part, is prepared to see how it can help exporters and facilitate speedy market access. A task-team has been appointed to "see to what extent the refusal to sign impacts on exporters and the whole economy and to determine the extent on which government should help the exporters".
Ngatjizeko would not be drawn to comment on whether government will pay subsidies to exporter saying the exact nature of intervention will be determined by facts and figures from the task force’s findings.
The European Union sprang up a surprise at the last negotiations in Brussels — much to the shock of African negotiators who had travelled with there with a full intention of signing an interim agreement — after it changed the text on the interim agreement, asking African countries to extend the EU with the most favoured nation treatment and freeze any new taxes and levies on raw materials.
The EU also refused to recognise that African countries may need to have infancy protection in certain industries, and insisted on a non-negotiable demand for a provision to ensure free movement of goods within the eight SADC countries under the EPA.
Ngatjizeko said such demands were, for Namibia and South Africa, "not acceptable", and more so for a country that "imports what it consumes and export its raw material". He said the EPA was supposed to help Namibia with "regional integration and not to disintegrate".
The upshots from signing the interim agreement were going to be far bigger thus outweighing the short-term losses that Namibia was going to incur if the EU refused to budge by 1 January 2008.
Should the EU decline to reconsider, Namibia will lose about N$700 million in beef exports only. Namibia exports fish and table grapes to EU where 22500 tons worth N$450 million were shipped last year. Exporters can still continue to export to the EU, even in the absence of the new agreement, but they will have to pay tariffs on their goods.
Ngatjizeko said the government will continue to engage the EU, both in Brussels and through its representative office here in Windhoek, to find the solution.
