WINDHOEK – According to the European External Action Service (EEAS) Director, Koen Vervaeke, the European Union has made considerable progress in recent months in addressing Namibia’s concerns regarding the yet unsigned Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
Vervaeke, who is on official visit to the Horn of Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa, noted that finalizing the EPAs is crucial and said the all parties concerned will put in all efforts to get the agreements completed as soon as possible. Speaking at the EU House in Windhoek on Friday, Vervaeke said EPAs should make economic partnerships stronger in the future.
“We want to build a reciprocal agreement and we emphasize that future trade relations should benefit both parties”, said Vervaeke during the Friday morning media briefing. Responsible for the coherence of European Union action in the region and the programming of EU’s financial cooperation, Vervaeke met President with Hifikepunye Pohamba on Friday afternoon and officially invited him to participate in the upcoming EU-Africa Summit that will be held in Brussels on April 2 and 3, 2014. Vervaeke continued that value addition is a key point in the negotiations.
“We would favour as much value addition as possible on the continent,” he said. The EU Parliament’s date of October 1, 2014, on which the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries that have not signed the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) will forfeit the preferential market access into the EU, was recently described by Trade and Industry Minister, Calle Schlettwein, as “regrettable.”
“This approach taken by the EU goes against the letter and spirit of what is supposed to be a partnership and is regrettable. It also has the potential of placing undue pressure on the negotiating processes. I therefore reiterate my concern over this unilateral step by a negotiating partner,” said Schlettwein, at the opening of a two-day national consultation on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations in Windhoek last year.
The SADC EPA countries are Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique and Angola. The ongoing negotiations between Namibia and the European Union (EU) have been described as part of the second phase of Namibia’s struggle, which is the struggle for economic freedom. The EPA negotiations started in 2000 and should have been concluded in December 2007, which was the date when the WTO waiver to the EU to provide non-reciprocal access to ACP countries was expiring. Faced with the threat of loss of preferential market access into the EU market at the end of December 2007, many ACP countries signed the interim EPAs. However, Namibia opted not to sign an interim EPA given that the country’s negotiators identified issues that would have eroded policy space. The EU is the biggest trading partner for Africa and remains its most important donor.
African countries received close to €24 billion (about N$350 billion) of Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the EU in the period 2007–2012.
By Edgar Brandt