Africa: Pressure as EU issues new trade ultimatum
Apparently, the EU is forced to act because it is also under pressure from other sources. With the US initiated AGOA planned for extension for another 15 years and the US promising $33 billion in trade deals, and with the Chinese also becoming a key player in developing countries, the EU doesn’t appear to have much time to tie up its trade relations with ACP countries. Development campaigners are crying foul, poor countries that depend on Europe as a key export market are feeling the pressure but the EU top officials say they have waited long enough.
Ambassador Kristian Schmidt, the EU Head of Delegation to Uganda, denied that the date was a deadline but suggested that the trade agreements are for the mutual benefit of both Europe and the ACP countries. “October 1 is neither an ultimatum, nor a deadline for EPA negotiations. It is the date when the Amendment of the so-called Market Access Regulation enters into application,” he said in an e-mail to The Independent. “From that date, only those ACP countries that have opted for an EPA will continue to benefit from free access to the EU market, unless they are Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and can, as such, export their products to the EU duty-free quota-free anyway.”
He added, “This regulation was always meant to be a temporary bridging measure, which advanced the application of the EU part of the deal while the ACP countries were proceeding with the signature and ratification of the interim EPAs made in 2007. It is therefore only normal that the EU is withdrawing free market access from those countries that have not seen through their commitments,” says Kristian Schmidt.
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