Geingob rips into WTO-EU deals

TRADE and Industry Minister Hage Geingob says southern Africa’s regional integration agenda is under fire by the forces of globalisation.

“This includes the international rules of the World Trade Organisation, which are being shaped more by the developed world to suit their own economic agenda,” Geingob said in a speech read on his behalf by Freddie Goaseb, a senior ministerial official, at a heated public dialogue organised by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the Agricultural Trade Forum yesterday. Other diversions from regional integration were the fact that several free-trade area (FTA) negotiations between the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) and other partners such as the US were ongoing.”With the SADC membership fragmented across several trade groupings with different tariffs regimes, there is no prospect for the creation for the envisaged SADC customs union,” Geingob stated.”Namibia is resolute in ensuring that the economic partnership agreements [EPAs] are not allowed to cause more harm to regional integration initiatives in southern Africa and would, therefore, pull out all stops in ensuring that regional integration is given prominence and is supported in trade agreements with international trading partners.”European Union Ambassador Elisabeth Pape hit back, saying she was “surprised about the attack that the EU through the European Commission [EC] is hindering regional integration in Africa”.”The EC has several indicative programmes in place like for infrastructure to aid developing countries improve regional integration,” she said.”The different overlapping trade configurations in Africa were not created by Europe but by African countries, but we (EU) are attacked for contributing to the problems of African integration.”Executive secretary Tswelelopele Moremi of the Windhoek-based Sacu secretariat noted that the fragmented trade blocs in Africa could not be blamed on the EU.”We however need to help the EU to recognise this and to help us bridge the divide,” Moremi urged.Pape explained what she called the misunderstanding of the most favoured nation (MFN) status EU member states want in the EPA and which SADC is resisting.”The EU countries do not want to pay import tariffs in each of the five Sacu member states, but only once,” she said.Countries in southern Africa belonging to different regional trade blocs fear that the difficult negotiations to reach EPAs with the EU might jeopardise their own regional economic integration on the continent.Trade expert Peter Draper accused the EU of “pushing the EPAs further than southern Africa can go”.Draper, who is the director of policy research at the South African Institute of international Affairs, said there were “political reasons” behind that push.”The European Commission, the administrative arm of the EU, treats South Africa differently in the regional set-up than the other four member states of the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) and the members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC),” Draper argued.South Africa concluded a separate trade agreement with the EU but is part of the SADC group of countries negotiating the EPAs.At the same time South Africa is also a member of Sacu, together with Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.To complicate matters more, the 14 SADC member states want to establish a customs union soon and the future of Sacu is in the balance.Other SADC members, such as Tanzania, are in the east African configuration in the EPA trade talks.Rolf Otto, deputy director for trade and regional integration at the Sacu Secretariat, said the MFN clause in the EPA text would seriously undermine the newly formed SADC free-trade area.”Under the MFN clause we must give the same trade preferences to EU countries as to our southern trade partners like Brazil, where farmers are not subsidised by government like in the EU and that is not acceptable,” Otto emphasised.Pape replied that the EU was aware of the African concerns, which were recently submitted in a position paper and would be discussed at the next round of talks.The EPA negotiations will take place in Brussels, Belgium, between November 3 and 7.Other diversions from regional integration were the fact that several free-trade area (FTA) negotiations between the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) and other partners such as the US were ongoing.”With the SADC membership fragmented across several trade groupings with different tariffs regimes, there is no prospect for the creation for the envisaged SADC customs union,” Geingob stated.”Namibia is resolute in ensuring that the economic partnership agreements [EPAs] are not allowed to cause more harm to regional integration initiatives in southern Africa and would, therefore, pull out all stops in ensuring that regional integration is given prominence and is supported in trade agreements with international trading partners.”European Union Ambassador Elisabeth Pape hit back, saying she was “surprised about the attack that the EU through the European Commission [EC] is hindering regional integration in Africa”.”The EC has several indicative programmes in place like for infrastructure to aid developing countries improve regional integration,” she said.”The different overlapping trade configurations in Africa were not created by Europe but by African countries, but we (EU) are attacked for contributing to the problems of African integration.”Executive secretary Tswelelopele Moremi of the Windhoek-based Sacu secretariat noted that the fragmented trade blocs in Africa could not be blamed on the EU.”We however need to help the EU to recognise this and to help us bridge the divide,” Moremi urged.Pape explained what she called the misunderstanding of the most favoured nation (MFN) status EU member states want in the EPA and which SADC is resisting.”The EU countries do not want to pay import tariffs in each of the five Sacu member states, but only once,” she said.Countries in southern Africa belonging to different regional trade blocs fear that the difficult negotiations to reach EPAs with the EU might jeopardise their own regional economic integration on the continent.Trade expert Peter Draper accused the EU of “pushing the EPAs further than southern Africa can go”.Draper, who is the director of policy research at the South African Institute of international Affairs, said there were “political reasons” behind that push.”The European Commission, the administrative arm of the EU, treats South Africa differently in the regional set-up than the other four member states of the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) and the members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC),” Draper argued.South Africa concluded a separate trade agreement with the EU but is part of the SADC group of countries negotiating the EPAs.At the same time South Africa is also a member of Sacu, together with Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.To complicate matters more, the 14 SADC member states want to establish a customs union soon and the future of Sacu is in the balance.Other SADC members, such as Tanzania, are in the east African configuration in the EPA trade talks.Rolf Otto, deputy director for trade and regional integration at the Sacu Secretariat, said the MFN clause in the EPA text would seriously undermine the newly formed SADC free-trade area.”Under the MFN clause we must give the same trade preferences to EU countries as to our southern trade partners like Brazil, where farmers are not subsidised by government like in the EU and that is not acceptable,” Otto emphasised.Pape replied that the EU was aware of the African concerns, which were recently submitted in a position paper and would be discussed at the next round of talks.The EPA negotiations will take place in Brussels, Belgium, between November 3 and 7.