Stop EU trade talks with ex-colonies - protesters
Stop EU trade talks with ex-colonies - protesters
Thu 27 Sep 2007
BRUSSELS, Sept 27 (Reuters) — Demonstrators in Brussels and Nairobi demanded on Thursday a halt to trade and investment negotiations between the European Union and former colonies, saying the proposed deal would harm poor countries.
In Brussels, around 100 protesters waved flags outside the headquarters of the EU’s executive Commission and campaigners wearing suits to represent big business symbolically dumped crates of EU food exports on an impromptu African market place.
In the Kenyan capital Nairobi, around 100 small-scale farmers gathered at a park and used two large oil drums to crush fresh produce — one drum painted like a can of powdered milk from the Netherlands, the other a tin of Italian tomato paste.
The EU is in the final stages of negotiating new trade and investment deals with nearly 80 former colonies in the Africa, Caribbean and Pacfic (ACP) group of countries.
Critics say ACP countries cannot compete fairly with Europe’s subsidised farmers and powerful exporters.
"We think these agreements are going to cause serious agricultural and industrial problems in our countries," said Ghanaian Kwaku Acheampong in Brussels, working for the Belgian Fund for Development and Cooperation, a non-governmental organisation.
"Yes, (African) governments are also partly responsible ... but we think Europe has a responsibility to correct the damage done in the past and presently," he added.
The new Economic Partnership Agreements between EU and ACP countries would replace existing preferential trade deals that the World Trade Organisation has ruled illegal and said must be scrapped by Dec. 31.
"Removal of tariffs will negatively affect the local farmer as the EU countries have their produce subsidised," said Kenyan demonstrator Douglas Ruhiu Gitau, a smallholder from Githunguri, outside Nairobi.
"They have good market rates, good infrastructure and there is no significant comparison between the EU and the third world countries," Gitau said.
EU trade chief Peter Mandelson says the deals will help ACP countries to develop their economies beyond the commodity exports that many still rely on, and that they can shield sensitive sectors from tariff cuts for several years.
EU officials say European farmers’ subsidies are no longer based on their output and export subsidies will be scrapped if ACP countries remove their import tariffs.
Mandelson has warned the ACP countries that without deals by Dec. 31, they risk paying higher EU import tariffs for their goods, but has denied allegations that he is trying to steamroller the ACP negotiators.
Commission officials say negotiations are most advanced with the Caribbean group but that big problems remain with east, west and southern Africa.
Demonstrations against the negotiations were also planned in dozens of other cities in Europe, Africa and beyond.
