Questions States must ask about EPAs
The East African Standard (Nairobi)
April 25, 2007
Questions States Must Ask About EPAs
By Isaiah Kipyegon
Nairobi
There have been myriad commentaries on the ongoing negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
The first thing in these debates is the jargon and how much a regular member of our communities would not understand. Begin reading the text, and you will be infinitely lost in a jungle of acronyms and technical terms.
Whereas I think the user-unfriendliness of the EPAs text and related discourse is deliberate, I think it’s about time that those who know anything about trade and economic agreements explained this agreement to the rest, in simple ’Wanjiku’ language.
And all those who work in economic justice specifically, and development generally, should begin to educate themselves on this subject, and then pass information and knowledge to communities whose livelihoods will be drastically affected by the agreement.
In ’Wanjiku’ Language, the Economic Partnership Agreement between European Union and our countries is a Free Trade Agreement. That is to say, an agreement to open our markets to Europe, in the pretext that Europe will open their markets to our products.
I say ’in the pretext’ because of the difference between the a country like Kenya and Europe in terms of production, development and industrial needs, political power and other aspects.
A Free Trade Agreement between a developed nation and a developing nation cannot be sustainable, it is often to the detriment of the poorer weaker nation.
First, how can our farmers compete with European farmers who are heavily subsidised? Shouldn’t we be worried that after the agreement is signed a packet of milk from Europe will cost half the price of our own milk? And that we will buy the foreign milk and completely forget about our s? What are the chances that our products will make it to Europe? And if they did, can they compete with the products there? I guess not!
If our economies rely heavily on agricultural production, and Kenya is investing quite a bit in this sector, what will our returns be? How about our grand vision 2030? I may be sounding paranoid, but this is a crucially urgent matter, especially with the deadline for signing the agreement being end of this year!
What will become of the revenue that our Government makes by charging import taxes and other levies on goods from Europe? This argument alone is sufficient to indicate that poor countries will loose substantially under the EPAs in their current state, while Europe is likely to smile all the way to the bank, literally.
Under the EPAs, African, Caribbean and Pacific countries are likely to see the demise of local manufacturing enterprises, as a result of competition from cheap subsidised imports.
So, who will benefit if the EPA is signed come December 31? I’d say Europe. There is a chance that our horticulture and floriculture sectors may gain. But who owns the flower farms and the large scale fruit-for-export farms? Clearly, not majority Kenyans.
If EPAs is likely to compromise our development and livelihoods as Africans, why do we have to sign it? As citizens and communities who stand to lose most, we have to speak up and demand a better deal.
The technocrats are likely to argue that we don’t know enough economics and trade issues to make such arguments. My answer to them is: then give us time to understand this monster.
There surely must be some alternatives to this agreement that will take our development into consideration. And if there are none, then lets get working on one!
The writer is communications and advocacy co-ordinator for Norwegian Church Aid - Eastern Africa
