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TRADE: Mandelson Attacks South Africa and Nigeria Over EPAs

David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Nov 20 2007 (IPS) - Africa’s largest nations are trying to block the signing of the economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with the European Union (EU), Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner, claimed today.

Speaking to members of the European Parliament, Mandelson strongly criticised the positions taken by Nigeria and South Africa in the EPA negotiations between the EU and nearly 80 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

He alleged that the larger African countries are preventing their counterparts in the regional EPA-defined groupings from signing deals by an end-of-year deadline.

The EU has threatened to impose punitive tariffs on Europe-bound exports from about half of the ACP countries if they do not enter into EPAs by December 31.

As the remaining 39 ACP participants are classified as least developed countries (LDCs), they qualify for a seven-year-old EU trade scheme, known as Everything-But-Arms, under which they would enjoy duty and quota-free access to the Union’s markets for most of their goods.

‘‘If you go to West Africa, the regional group is dominated by Nigeria, which wouldn’t touch an EPA with a barge pole,’’ Mandelson said. ‘‘That’s okay for West Africa if you are relatively rich like Nigeria. But what about Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana? They are not rich, nor are they LDCs. They need an EPA to avoid disruption to trade at the end of the year.’’

Similarly, he argued that South Africa, which already has a trade agreement with the EU, ‘‘does not have as much at stake’’ as its neighbours. He raised the possibility that EPAs could be signed with other southern African countries, if South African president Thabo Mbeki’s government rules one out.

‘‘Am I – because of South Africa’s inability finally to commit – to say there should be no EPA for southern Africa; that there should be a disruption of trade with Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland?’’ he asked.

Mandelson’s combative stance was condemned by anti-poverty activists, who are perturbed by indications that the EU is attempting to drive a wedge between African countries, putting pressure on them to conclude deals that would prevent them from cushioning their farmers and nascent industries from an influx of European goods.

Karin Ulmer from Aprodev, an umbrella group for Protestant aid agencies, said it is ‘‘not fair’’ that the EU is trying to pull poor countries into an ‘‘unequal relationship’’.

‘‘Maybe it is not even the intention (to create divisions between ACP countries) but, de facto, that is what the European Commission is doing,’’ she told IPS.

Oxfam campaigner Luis Morago noted that Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade recently commented on how EU-Africa relations are ‘‘out of order’’ because of differences on trade. This does not bode well for the summit between European and African heads of state and government, scheduled to take place in Lisbon, Portugal, next month.

‘‘The EU-Africa summit is meant to herald the start of a new partnership,’’ Morago said. ‘‘Most African countries are not convinced that what the EU has put on the table is worth signing. European and African leaders should take this opportunity to step back, rethink their approach and focus on creating a truly development-focused partnership.’’

Also meeting on November 20, development aid ministers from the EU’s 27 member states, issued a statement which ‘‘expressed concern’’ over the slow pace of the EPA talks in some regions.

The ministers endorsed suggestions by Mandelson that agreements limited to trade in goods should be signed this year, allowing talks on other issues such as investment, competition and services liberalisation to run into 2008.

Caroline Lucas, a British Green member of the European Parliament (MEP), argued that Mandelson is putting pressure on vulnerable countries to open their markets to European goods. The Guardian newspaper in London, she remarked, had reprimanded him this week for ‘‘bully-boy tactics’’.

But Mandelson, who played a pivotal role in reforming Britain’s Labour Party before being appointed to the European Commission, said he had encountered such charges since the mid-1980s. ‘‘The day that Peter Mandelson is not called a bully by The Guardian newspaper, I will throw a very large party indeed,’’ he said.

Erika Mann, a German Social Democrat MEP, said that some African countries would ‘‘have a lot of problems signing a free trade deal with the EU.

‘‘The problem is that they don’t have the capacity to negotiate free trade agreements with other countries elsewhere in the world,’’ she added.

British Conservative Party MEP Robert Sturdy took Mandelson to task for his readiness to discuss the possibility of deals with some ACP countries that will exclude others.

‘‘Surely the whole point of the EPAs is to facilitate and promote regional integration,’’ said Sturdy. ‘‘This is not about bilateral agreements. President Wade has said that the system proposed by the EU for trade is not acceptable and that EU-Africa relations are broken. It doesn’t sound as though things are going particularly well.’’