Brussels, 14/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 13 June, the European Parliament in Strasbourg gave its assent to the interim economic partnership agreement (EPA) between the EU and Cameroon, the Central African country that belongs to the ACP Group (African/Caribbean/Pacific states). This formal endorsement from the Strasbourg assembly comes as no surprise, with MEPs following the recommendation made on 28 May this year by the parliamentary committee on international trade (rapporteur: David Martin, S&D, UK).
The interim EPA, negotiated under the Cotonou Agreement, is an asymmetrical trade liberalisation agreement under which Cameroon will gradually liberalise 80% of its market by 2023 (with several safeguard clauses) while it has enjoyed free access for its products to the European market since 2008 under the regulation governing market access (Regulation No1528/2007). Cameroon is one of the eight ACP countries which, not being one of the least developed countries, or LDCs, is threatened with losing its preferential tariff and quota-free market access unless it ratifies the EPA by October 2014. This was an essential precondition accepted by the European Parliament in April to the great disenchantment of the ACP countries which again voiced their disappointment at the recent joint ACP/EU Council of Ministers, in Brussels (see EUROPE 10863).
“This is where we get to with the European Commission's liberal policy which puts pressure on the ACP countries so that they sign the EPAs against their interests. Such logic which means that ACP countries open their market up to the detriment of their own development, responding to the vital needs of their citizens, is scandalous”, said MEP Jean Jacob Bicep (Greens/EFA, France). He went on to add: “Furthermore, Cameroon is signing the free-trade agreement with the EU without the other countries of the region, which makes regional integration still more fragile after the upheavals of armed conflict”. Just a few days from the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, to be held in Brussels next week (17-19 June), the Greens/EFA Group notes that “the traces of the colonial period are still present and continue to have an impact on the structure of North/South relations” and “economic logic based on free trade does not meet the sustainable development needs of the ACP countries” (our translation throughout).
The bilateral interim EPA with Cameroon was signed on 15 January 2009 pending the conclusion of a comprehensive EPA between the EU and the Central Africa region. Negotiations with the whole of the region will continue beyond October 2014. The European Parliament's approval is required by the Treaty of Lisbon for all trade agreements signed by the EU. In order to take effect, the interim EFA with Cameroon will also have to be ratified by Cameroon. (AN/transl.jl)