By Wezi Tjaronda
WINDHOEK
The Namibian Agricultural Union (NAU) has said there is an urgent need to find a replacement agreement if Namibia’s exports to the EU are to continue.
SACU and ATM countries (Angola, Tanzania and Mozambique) are negotiating their Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) under the SADC configuration to replace the Cotonou agreement, which allows affected countries to negotiate Economic Partnership Agreements to qualify for the EU’s offer to eliminate tariffs and import quotas for African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.
The offer gives these countries the same full market access to the 27 EU countries that all least developed countries (LCDs) in this group and elsewhere already have under the EU’s Everything But Arms (EBA) regime.
With slightly over three months to go before the expiry date, there is no replacement agreement yet.
NAU President, Raimar von Hase, last week said he was concerned that government officials were more interested in industrialisation and regional integration than securing current markets.
“Officials often remark that it is important to have regional integration and industrialisation which are still many years off,” he said.
He said Namibia relies heavily on the agricultural sector for food supply, foreign exchange and jobs. Although some have advocated that Namibia finds alternative markets to replace existing ones in case of problems, Von Hase said producers could not look to other markets that are not developed yet.
“We have found a market that pays the highest like the EU, so why would we want to look for alternatives where we have no experience, no contacts and no veterinary clearance.”
Namibia already has market chains, transport and storage facilities for products that it exports to the EU.
The meat industry has now found another avenue to export beef, lamb and goats to the United States of America, but has to overcome veterinary hurdles before it can start exporting.
“We are trying to fulfill the standards which will not be in place in the coming months before the Cotonou Agreement expires,” he said.
European Union Delegation’s Alain Joaris told New Era there should be an agreement by December because negotiators were working very hard. The last round of negotiations was held in Walvis a day after the EU held a SADC EPA seminar for civil society organisations and the private sector.
Follow-up negotiations have been planned for end August or September, said Joaris.
He however said there has been no substantial development because comments have not been exchanged yet.
“They are still preparing comments,” he said.
The negotiations were launched in Windhoek three years ago.
If no agreement is reached by the end of this year, Namibia stands to lose 45 million euros in taxes to the EU.