ECOWAS ministers hold crucial talks over trade with EU

by Romoke W. Ahmad

West Africa's ministers responsible for coordinating negotiations for the creation of a regional free trade area with the European Union held crucial talks in Accra, Ghana yesterday on the way forward in the negotiations following disagreements over some issues.

The negotiations, launched in 2004 with the adoption of a road map, were intended to produce a successor agreement to various Conventions that had guided trade relations between the two regions which would be compliant with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.

They were to have been concluded by 2007 but have been dogged by divergences mainly over the financing of the EPA Development Programme (EPADP), a $16billion programme for addressing the costs of adjustment and implementation of the EPA; as well as the status of the Community Levy for funding ECOWAS; the most favoured nation (MFN) clause and the scope of market access offer.

Regional leaders have insisted on a credible source of funding the programme in fresh funds from the EU which argues instead that the programme be funded from existing funds under the European Development Fund (EDF) and other sources. The disagreements also relate to the schedule of opening of West Africa's markets to products from the EU which is insisting on an 80-per cent market access over 12 to 15 years while West Africa is offering 70 per cent of its market to be liberalized over 25 years. The region is worried that its burgeoning industries could be destroyed by a deluge of goods from the EU with its agricultural sector becoming a victim to subsidized products from the EU.

The one-day meeting of ECOWAS Trade Ministers together with their counterpart from Mauritania under the aegis of the Ministerial Monitoring Committee (MMC) is to chart a way forward in the negotiations based on the recommendations of a preceding meeting of experts which is also taking place in Accra.

Two ECOWAS Member States - Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana - which signed an interim agreement with the EU in 2007 in order to preserve the trade preferences they enjoy in the EU market are under intense pressure to ratify the agreement by December 2013.

Similarly, Cape Verde which has just been upgraded to a developing country status, which means the loss of its privileges under the existing trade preference arrangement, is also being pressured to sign a bilateral agreement with the EU by the end of December 2011.

The consequence is that the region could be left with a multiplicity of trade regimes which could impact negatively on West Africa's integration efforts.

The regional ministers are therefore expected to issue directives to forestall this scenario which has the potential of affecting the conclusion of the regional EPA before the deadlines to these countries.

The two-day meeting of experts that preceeded that of the ministers has reviewed the status of implementation of the recommendations of the last meeting of the MMC held on 7th May 2010 in Bamako, Mali, as well as the progress on the thematic areas of the negotiations, the EPA Development Programme (EPADP), and the draft text of the EPADP Protocol.

They have also reviewed the market access offer, the Protocol on the rules of origin, preparations for negotiations of trade in services, the creation of an EPA fund and the Common External Tariff (CET) for the region.

Daily Trust