Be careful on EPA talks, Eala cautions bloc
The Citizen | Thursday, 24 May 2012
Be careful on EPA talks, Eala cautions bloc
By Zephania Ubwani
The Citizen Bureau Chief
Arusha — The East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) has warned that the region stands to lose if it is not careful with Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations with the European Union. The regional legislature argued that pertinent concerns and contentious issues must be adequately addressed by relevant bodies prior to the conclusion of the talks, which have dragged for years.
Eala, which is meeting here for the budget session, warned that the bloc stands to lose tariff revenue amounting to approximately $301 million yearly if EU demands under the deal are implemented. “Kenya alone stands to lose tariff revenue amounting to $193.8m a year,” the Assembly said as it passed a resolution, adding that the bloc sufferers from chronic supply-side constraints and challenges.
At the same time, the Assembly directed the East African Community (EAC) secretary-general to submit a report every four months until the deliberations of the EPA talks are concluded and signed.
The resolution, which was read by Mr Gervase Akhaabi, an Eala member from Kenya, once again raised a number of areas of repeated concerns on the on-going EPA talks between the bloc and EU. The Assembly cited among other areas, the high level of liberalisation the EU is asking of the EAC and noted that the Most Favoured Nations (MFN) Clause would have an impact on the ability to have south-south co-operation and other trade agreements.
Other concerns noted were Europe’s refusal to integrate additional and binding agreements and the refusal of the EU to address their yearly 80 billion-euro domestic support even as they want EAC to develop commercial agriculture markets in the region.
During the debate, Mr Mugisha Muntu from Uganda reiterated the need for the Council of Ministers, the policy organ of the Community, to pay particular attention to the EAC-EPA talks.
He said the House had intervened a number of times on the EPA talks in an attempt to right the concerns in the agreement.
Mr Muntu cited the example of the over 2,900 tariff lines for which the EAC lacks local production capacity saying it was time for the region to implement the EAC Industrialisation Plan.“Such plans and policies the legislator added, would guide the region in its negotiations with bilateral and multilateral partners,” he said.
Ms Catherine Kimura noted that Kenya, as a non-least developed country (LDC), would lack access to certain quotas that other EAC partner states would access.She urged the Council of Ministers to engage their counterparts in Europe so that information sharing and experiences are shared.
“There is need for mutual relationship between the region and Europe and not merely a one-sided arrangement,” Ms Kimura said. She urged the House to pass the resolution and forward the same to the European Parliament.
Ms Safina Kwekwe, also from Kenya, said the EAC and other African countries have supply challenges and that market entry was hampered despite the access on paper.
The EAC Secretary-General, Dr Richard Sezibera, noted that the EAC negotiators had already taken into consideration the concerns that Members expressed on the floor and that the desire of the EAC to address the same had partly led to the delay in completion of the talks.
He said the region had requested for amendment on Market Access
Regulation (EC 1528/2007) and General affirmed that there was no stalemate in the technical negotiations but added in certain areas the negotiators were yet to arrive at consensus, one of which is the MFN clause.
