Namibia inspires NGOs’ anti-EPA campaign
New Era | 26 March 2010
Namibia inspires NGOs’ anti-EPA campaign
by Desie Heita
WINDHOEK – Namibia has moved non-governmental organisations with her defiant stance on signing the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union, and civil organisations are now mobilising boycotts across southern Africa against the EPA.
So impressed by Namibia are non-government organisations that they suggest mounting mass demonstrations in southern Africa and Brussels, the seat of the European Union Commission.
“We are impressed by Namibia’s [ability] to withstand the pressure,” declared the non-governmental organisations from as far as Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Angola.
Civil organisations met in Windhoek this week, where they expressed their admiration for Namibia’s ability to hold up against the bully tactics of Europe.
Southern African People’s Solidarity Network, together with Southern African Christian Initiative convened the meeting.
Dot Keet, one of the representatives of Southern African People’s Solidarity Network, says the European Union (EU)’s threat that Namibia would lose her special exports right of beef into Europe, fails to recognise that the country has other investment potentials that also need exploitation.
“This [losing beef export into EU] might or might not be true. But Namibia has much more than beef,” says Keet, adding that the assumption given is as though beef is the only area of trade the country has on offer, while there are so many other trade areas the country is developing, many of which need infant industry protection.
Civil societies also touched on the ultimatum that the EU gave to Namibia at a Maputo meeting early this month, labelling it “a ploy by EU” to force African countries to sign the agreement.
The EU asked Namibia to stop skating on thin ice and make up her mind whether to be in or out of the EPA. A senior EU trade head said the current situation where Namibia has initialled but is refusing to sign the final agreement is “untenable” and is about to open a can of legal worms, from both the EU and the World Trade Organisation.
Head of EPA unit in European Commission Jacques Wunenburger told the SADC EU meeting in Maputo that the Namibian “situation cannot be sustained, the state of play is untenable”.
EU says non-committal by Namibia while benefiting from an arrangement that she is objecting to is in violation of serious EU and WTO rules and regulations on international trade, and this “is creating a very shaky legal situation”.
However, non-governmental organisations say the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has until this day failed to act on EU or the US’s practice of discriminatory trade preferences.
Non-governmental organisations say the EPA contradict and negate the position of African countries to diversify and open their market for regional trade.
EPA, say civil societies, are aimed at maintaining Europe’s “competitive position in the world and to secure its continued dominance over Africa’s rich resources”.
They are now advocating for a legal course with demands to African lawmakers not to ratify EPA, or make any laws that accommodate EPA.
“We are planning an Africa-wide day of action by marching from our own offices to the parliament to present a petition not to ratify and suspend negotiations on EPAs. We are going to ask for the same from our various comrades in the region and from our partners particularly in Brussels to organise the same marches all at the same time,” says the civil societies.
