CLARIFICATION ON EAC EPA: REJOINDER TO “THIS DAY” NEWSPAPER

By Leo Odera Omolo

Our attention has been drawn to the feature article appearing in the issue of THIS DAY newspaper, entitled “How Mramba, Mwapachu gave away our future to Europe” in reference to the Interim Framework Agreement on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) which SADC, ESA (representing many COMESA members) and EAC have signed with the EC.

While we would not dignify with any comment most of that tendentious and baseless matter contained in the article, it is important to underscore the interim nature of the so appropriately designated Interim Framework Agreement that has been signed between the EAC and the EC. It is not correct to state or imply that the EAC is the only regional bloc that has signed such Interim Framework Agreement.

Secondly, it is important to understand the rationale and singular motive behind the Interim Framework Agreement, namely to protect the interests of the EAC region in the trade arrangements with the EU. Whereas the duty and quota free access to EU markets under the Cotonou Agreement lapse on 31 December 2007 pursuant to WTO rules, the purpose of the Interim Framework Agreement is precisely to avoid trade disruption over exports of the EAC Partner States to the EU. Without the interim Agreement, EAC exports would have ended quotas and attracted high duties making the exports uncompetitive.

Thirdly, the question as to who benefits more from the interim Agreement, Kenya or Tanzania or other Partner States , does not arise. The interim Agreement has been signed with the express intention to protect all EAC exports, now and into the next decade and beyond. The specific accusation that the Agreement seeks to protect Kenya cut flower exporters totally overlooks the fact that Tanzania , in the last decade, has also emerged as a major exporter of cut flowers and more investments are getting into this sector. Tanzania is also a leading exporter of Nile perch fish fillet into the EU, one of the commodities whose preferential access to the EU markets has been safeguarded under the interim Agreement.

Fourthly, it is important to appreciate that while, due to the above stated circumstances, the EAC and other RECs have opted for the Interim Agreement; by the same token they have refused to be stampeded into signing comprehensive EPAs at this stage. This is precisely because the EAC and the other ACP RECs are collectively not happy with the conditions involved, especially over issues of competition, trade in services and investments, TRIPS, Environment etc, the so called Singapore issues.

Indeed, most of these issues, upon which the protection of the peasants and farmers of the EAC and ACP countries, the protection of the infant industries of the developing countries and the protection of jobs depend, are work in progress in the Doha Trade and Development Round. The position that the EAC and other RECs of the ACP countries have taken is that these issues cannot appropriately be negotiated under the EPAs without the completion of the Doha Talks.

Fifthly, and finally, we would state emphatically that the Governments of the EAC Partner States have neither taken weak negotiating positions nor given away any interests of the EAC to EU. Far from it, the next negotiations for a comprehensive EPA, over two years, with effect from January, 2008, for which the EAC has extracted EU concession, will involve a broad multi-stakeholder constituency to ensure that what is negotiated with the EU meets the interests of the East African people as indeed those of the rest of the ACP countries.

On the whole, it is important to restate that these are multilateral negotiations of very high stakes and in which the EAC and other RECs are working with the African Union and other regions of the developing world, to ensure that the developing countries negotiate collectively, not separately. Underpinning the entire process is the commitment that a "trade union of the poor", as Mwalimu Nyerere put it before the G77 in Arusha in 1977, must inform Africa 's next stage of EPA negotiations with the EU.

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leooderaomolo@yahoo.com