African Churches Reject New Trade Pacts with Europe

NAIROBI, July 24, 2007: New trade agreements being negotiated between Europe and developing countries are harmful to Africa, All Africa Conference of Churches said. In a letter urging African trade ministers not to sign the Economic Partnership Agreements by Dec. 31, AACC General Secretary, Rev. Dr. Mvume Dandala, said developing countries risked losing much-needed revenues if the new trade agreements came into force in January as planned.

Africa’s trade ministers met last week in Accra, Ghana, to discuss the EPAs which have been rejected by fair trade activists from around the world. Revenue losses due to the new trade rules, Dr Dandala said, would lead to cuts in the already reduced spending on crucial social welfare needs like education, health, food security, water and sanitation. This will challenge the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and governments’ development plans.

From independence until 2002, trade between African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and Europe were ruled by the Yaounde and Lome Conventions. The trade regime was “asymmetric” (without obligation of reciprocal advantages), thus favouring ACP exports to the EU and allowing the ACP to get an income from the custom duties of goods imported from Europe. ACP countries benefited from unilateral duty-free access to the EU market for most of their exports, while not obliged to open their market to European goods that had to pay custom duties. But some Latin-American countries, backed by USA, considered this “special treatment” of goods incompatible with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, as they felt “discriminated” against by the EU regarding bananas and sugar.

In 2002 when the last Lome Convention ended, the EU asked the WTO for a waiver valid till Dec. 31, 2007. In the new Cotonou Agreement between the EU and the ACP states, the signatories agreed to establish Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) that would pursue trade liberalization and create free trade by the end 2007. Dr Dandala said that by neglecting the WTO principle of special and differential treatment for less developed countries, the EU was shifting away from its previous thinking on development and trade. “The EU prefers this bilateral route for trade negotiations because it will gain further concessions through the ‘divide and rule’ negotiating tactic,” Dr Dandala said. “The pact seeks investment liberalization, guaranteed protection for European corporate property and increased intellectual property rights,” he said. “It will also open up ACP service sectors and government procurement (public tenders) to the operations of European companies, and the imposition of inappropriate 'competition' rules.”

Dr Dandala said the church, faith-based organizations and the civil society are opposed to the new pact. Catholic and other church organisations in Europe and Africa have already rejected the EPAs.
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