Open letter to Meatco on EPA negotiations and the suspension of Wallie Roux.
We are writing you this letter to express our concern regarding the EPA negotiations and the treatment of your staff member Mr Wallie Roux. We hope and trust that you are willing to review this matter in the light of recent developments.
The bad publicity generated around Mr Roux’s suspension can certainly not be in Meatco’s nor Namibia’s interest.
As you are aware, the 2nd Round of EPA negotiations between the EU and the SADC-EPA for 2007 took place during the week of 18-22 June in Walvis Bay.
The Round ended in a stalemate because of the EU’s insistence to include the “new generation issues” in the negotiating agenda.
The SADC-EPA members, however, do not want to negotiate the new generation issues before the end of 2007, inter alia because of a lack of capacity, the lack of existing legislation in these areas and the interference in government protected sectors.
The SADC-EPA members would rather opt for a working agreement on the “new generation issues” and concentrate on trade in goods only to have an agreement in place before the expiry of the WTO waiver.
These are precisely the issues referred to by Mr Wallie Roux when he stated that it would be unwise to chase a deadline and neglect the content of the agreement to be signed. It is really unfortunate that the entire Namibian beef industry distanced itself from his viewpoint during a press conference and that he was subsequently suspended by Meatco.
Mr Roux was then invited in his personal capacity as a discussant to an EPA Conference in Brussels on 26 June 2007, with the theme: “Challenges of the SADC-EPA negotiations.” At the Conference it was announced that he was unable to attend.
Further enquiries from the Conference organizers revealed that you as Meatco’s CEO had cancelled his application for leave to attend the Conference, despite the date for his second internal hearing being set for only 16 July 2007.
M. Roux could have easily returned in time for his hearing. We also learned that during the duration of the seminar, Oxfam International had organized a press conference with Brussels-based journalists where Mr Roux could have informed them about the problems that the Namibian beef industry is facing in the current EPA negotiations.
Furthermore, a French NGO, Gret, had organised a sponsored trip to Wiesbaden, Germany where Mr Roux would have spoken on the same topic at a breakfast meeting to the high-level delegation of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the EU and the ACP.
Due to your refusal to grant Mr Roux leave, these are missed opportunities to raise Namibia’s concerns.
It is ironic that the SADC-EPA members (including the Namibian Government) follow the line of thought that Mr Roux had proposed while the Namibian beef industry distanced itself from his viewpoint and Meatco suspended him.
This happens at a time when Namibia’s beef industry has got serious problems given the current stalemate between the EU and the SADC-EPA in view of the expiring WTO waiver at the end of this year.
Every available lobbying opportunity should be exploited to try and salvage their case. It is thus tragic that Mr Roux as one person who could articulate the case for his country is being victimized.
We thus urge you to reconsider the steps taken and to let Mr Roux continue his important work.
Yours sincerely
Jos Martens