Lisbon, 10/12/2007 (Agence Europe) - The day after the interim EU-Côte d'Ivoire agreement initialled on 7 December by Abidjan (the first stage towards the conclusion of an economic partnership agreement - EPA) and on the eve of a similar approach by Ghana, the EU-Africa summit proved to be the theatre of barbed remarks exchanged between the EU and West Africa, the latter supported by South Africa. The European Commission, accused of dividing African countries and harming African regional integration by seeking to impose bilateral free trade agreements that are against the development interests of poor countries, tried one last time to calm things down. José Manuel Barroso's proposal to plan a high level meeting in February 2008 with negotiating regions, in an effort to facilitate the continuation of regional level negotiations, was ratified by the summit. The continuation of negotiations in 2008 had already been accepted, given that no EPA will be signed between now and 31 December (deadline set by the WTO for expiration of preferential trade regime with Cotonou) with any of the African or ACP countries (Africa/Caribbean/Pacific). The political decision of the Commission president to get involved in the process at the highest level adds a new dimension. In practice, José Manuel Barroso, Commissioner for Trade Peter Mandelson and Commissioner for Trade Louis Michel, will meet African leaders and chief negotiators from each of the African regions.
Alfa Oumar Konaré, the president of the Commission of the African Union, had previously criticised the European attitude but welcomed this “gesture of openness”. His comments, however, were circumspect and he gave a warning to the press after the meetings had ended: “My greatest wish is that the signing of these interim agreements will not mean having the remainder blocked off and indefinitely tying us down. If such partnerships are built on the weakness of African unity, we will have difficulties”. In his introductory speech at the opening of the summit, the AU president was more explicit and he underlined that Africa was one and indivisible, declaring, “there is an African Union and the Regional Economic Communities. It is important, especially during the negotiations for the EPAs, to avoid using methods from a previous era, which are contrary to legitimate African choices, and not to begin isolated negotiations pitting African regions against each other or against other countries in the same region. No African country can survive without the other. The destiny of the better off countries is intimately linked to that of the least well off”.
In an effort to bring peace, José Manuel Barroso provided assurances that the EU was attentive to the legitimate concerns of African countries, and affirmed that the interim agreements initialled by around 15 southern African countries, the Community of East African states, East and West Africa, essentially focused on protecting middle income African countries (the Cameroon, Namibia, Ghana, Nigeria etc.) against uncertainties about the trade regime replacing the Cotonou unilateral preferences on 1 January 2008. The Commission hopes that all these countries sign an interim agreement, compatible with WTO trade rules, by 31 December and then have the time to negotiate EPAs acceptable to all. Mr Barroso hammered home the fact that “interim agreements are not EPAs but the instruments to prevent a rupture of export flows to the EU on 1 January. They are even better than the status quo under the Cotonou agreement and contain more favourable rules of origin that will help boost local industry. They also contain an EU market access offer of 100%”.
The decision of the EU-Africa summit to ratify the gesture made by the Commission circumvented the approach taken by the Senegalese president, Abdoulaye Wade, who had submitted a draft resolution calling on the EU-Africa summit to “allow African countries to do as they will and not sign the EPAs, a position that was strongly expressed by several heads of state, particularly Mr Wade and Thabo Mbeki, the president of South Africa”. Wade supported a rejection of the EPAs in favour of development partnerships and requested a ministerial meeting in December to “look at but not pre-judge the EU-Africa relationship and request further EU-Africa negotiations to finally implement a partnership for the two parties on the basis of their mutual interests”. Before flying off to Dakar before the end of the summit, Mr Wade declared to the press: “Africa does not agree. This is a bad approach. Africa cannot at the moment envisage a 15 year period of free trade, given the dissymmetry between the economies of the two blocks. No African country would be able to withstand the amputation of its budget through the loss of revenue from customs. The question was not posed well”. He warned against the risk of “triggering off an unprecedented earthquake between the EU and Africa”. Mr Wade warned that “a strait-jacket doesn't work and punishment is no answer”.
In reply to a journalist who asked Nicolas Sarkozy whether he supported Mr Wade, the French president would only point out that it was necessary to “avoid the over-exploitation of Africa's raw materials” and that “no African country is prepared to accept an economic liberalism that means they can produce nothing at all”. Taking the example of Burkina Faso, the biggest cotton producer, which buys in Euro but which sells in dollars, the president underlined the need to avoid suffocating such countries and appealed for “leaving them some degree of protection on a market where the brutality of trade” denies them any possibility of escape. He said that he was in favour of globalisation but not for the plunder of a country that had nothing. He renewed his request to the IMF and World Bank regarding the question of “sharing out the benefits” and said that they should think about how to “compensate countries that could not survive, due to oil price rises, by giving them some of the high profits”. (A.N.)