BILATERAL SAFEGUARDS IN EPA Let me get a few things out of the way before dwelling on the Bilateral Safeguards. EPA is not a bad agreement as most want to portray. Would not say it is great because I would have liked to see the following clearly expanded. 1. Foreign direct investment. 2. Technology transfer 3. Building of human capital 4. Regional integration (I can expand on these but don’t want to miss my main point for this comment) Those notwithstanding the crux of the benefit of EPA to Ghana is the market access to EU and I cannot believe folks think this is bad. That is a good thing. Here is the most important point for this post: It will take a LOT for the government to make EPA successful. To make it successful there needs to be: 1. A department managing EPA 2. A comprehensive software which collects and analyzes the numerous data of goods exported from Ghana to EU and goods imported from EU to Ghana. There is so much detail surrounding different goods and services. 3. Bilateral safeguards – the ability for Ghana or EU to call a “timeout” on a product if the product is deemed to destroy a particular local industry. So one of the biggest arguments against EPA is that it will destroy our local industries. What surprised me when I read the document itself (at least the draft version) is that there is a clause in there which states that if a particular product is imported into the country and we consider the product will unfairly compete with our local version or prevent a local industry from being created, we can stop the import of that product. At least for a couple of years. This throws out the window the argument that EPA will destroy local industries. However, for these and the complex management of EPA to be successful, the government needs an A-Team, a top-notch team, a serious team to manage EPA. There are numerous parts which will require extremely sharp guys to manage. It is for these reasons that I hesitate to recommend EPA. The fact is, after carefully studying the document, if we had any room to trust that the government will 1. Constitute an A-team to manage EPA 2. Empower a comprehensive management team 3. The Team should have a Rapid response to any product which is imported to the country and deemed to destroy any of our local industries. 4. The Team should use the initial funds within the first 5 years for capacity building 5. The Team should coordinate with all our embassies in the various European countries to gather markets for our local companies or startups to supply. 6. The Team should work with Private Enterprise in Ghana and link them with Foreign Direct Investment. 7. The Team should coordinate technology transfer and assist the private sector to gain partners in technology especially in Asia, Brazil, USA and Europe. 8. The Team should develop a broader National Development Plan coordinating with all opposition political parties and stakeholders so that EPA and other development plans can seamlessly continue should there be a change in government. If the government could do these things, then I would recommend EPA. But I don’t trust this government to do these basic things. This is why I cannot in good conscience support EPA.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 17:30:34 +0000
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