Some brief historical antecedent to the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) 1957. European Economic Community (EEC) was formed via the Treaty of Rome with six members namely Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany. The Treaty allowed for economic corporations with non-members. 1963/64. As more African countries gained independence, the EEC and its oversees colonial territories made up of 18 ex-Africa colonies( mainly French speaking countries) signed the Yaoundé Convention I on 20th July, 1963 which entered into force on 1st June 1964. The convention was the first generation of economic cooperation agreements and was valid for 5 years. It covered financial aids and technical cooperation. . 1969-71. The Yaoundé convention II, a revision of Convention I, was signed on 29 July 1969 and entered into force on 1st January, 1971. These two agreements, as literature suggests, did not effectively respond to the challenges faced by most of the Africa countries but it constituted the bases for a broader Lome Convention in 1975. 1973. The United Kingdom also joined the EEC bringing along its ex colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. 1975-1990. Creation of Africa, Pacific and Caribbean group in 1975 with 46 ACP countries. Lome convention was signed in 1975 and came into force in April, 1976 with the EEC and this time the Africa, Pacific and Caribbean (ACP) countries particularly Ex British, Ducth, Belgian and French colonies including Ghana. Two main aspects: 1. It provided for the ACP, tax free access to the European market with their Agric and mineral exports. It introduced the STABEX system that provided a compensatory finance to stabilize export earnings from Agric products due to fluctuations in prices or supply of commodities and currency depreciation. 2. It committed to 3 billion ECU in aids and investments in ACP countries. ECU, the European Community Unit, was the electronic unit of account determined by a basket of EEC member states and the precursor to the Euro. The Lome Convention was renegotiated and renewed three times. Lome Convention II (1981-1985) increased aids and investments expenditure for the ACP to 4.5 billion ECU. It also introduced the SYSMIN scheme which provided a compensatory finance to stabilize export earnings from mineral exports due to fluctuations in prices. Lome Convention III(1985-1990) also increased investment commitment to 7.5 billion ECU with the trade version of the agreement remaining the same as the previous conventions. It introduced a human right clause to the agreement for the first time. 1990-2000. Lome Convention IV was signed in December, 1989 to come into force from 1990 for 10 years. Aids and investments commitment to ACP countries reached about 12billion ECU for the first five years and further support of about 15 billion ECU for the remaining years. Introduced a clause that warrant suspension of aids in case of grave violation of set values and principles. The ACP countries had reached 72. 1992. As a result of the single European market Act in 1987 , all barriers to free movement of goods and persons, services and capital were progressively removed by the end of 1992 which affected the preferential access to the EU market granted to the ACP. Some Caribbean banana famers managed to secure a special dispensation from the UK that hindered a competition with their counterparts from the Central America Plantations. Because, banana from the Central Africa plantation was cheaper relative to the Caribbean’s. 1995, the US government petition WTO to investigate whether the Lome agreement IV was not in violation with WTO’s rules. 1996. The WTO Dispute Settlement body ruled in favour of the US government which effectively ended the cross subsidies that the ACP countries had enjoyed for many years. Subsequently, another petition from the US government got the WTO to rule that all the Lome agreements were inconsistent with WTO regulations. 2000-2003. The Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA) was developed to span a period of 20years. The agreement was fist signed in Cotonou, Benin in 2000 but entered into force in April, 2003 with revision clause every five years till 2020. Except Cuba, all the 79 ACP countries including Ghana signed the Cotonou agreements. The EPA is a key element of the CPA in compliance with the WTO rulings. Article 36 (1) of the agreement says “…. the Parties agree to include NEW WTO compatible trading arrangements, removing progressively areas to trade between them and enhancing cooperation in all areas relevant to trade”. Unlike the all the previous agreements which were non-reciprocal, the EPA works on reciprocity of trade arrangements with the EEC in line with WTO regulations. That means that the EEC should also have equal access tax free to the ACP market as they offered since the Younde’ conventions. 2005-2008. CPA was revised in in June 2005 in Luxembourg and entered into force on 1 July 2008. Deadlines were set for the implementation of the EPA. Ghana initialled the interim EPA but didn’t sign whilst Ivory Coast signed the Interim EPA but didn’t ratify. Aside these two countries no other West African state has either initialled signed or ratified the interim EPA. The interim EPA offers duty free, quota free access for all imports from Ghana as of 1st January 2008. Ghana will liberalise its market to EU imports in line with the agreed trade regulation annexed to the interim EPA. 2010. The Cotonou Partnership Agreement was revised once more in Ouagadougou in June 2010 making it more compelling for ACP to sign the EPA although unfavourable to the ACP markets. Conclusion: We have already signed our death warrant so why are we complaining? Didnt we foresee the EPA when we were signing the Cotonou Agreements? The Bond of 1844 has been reactivated! The EPA should not be signed in its current form. We should APPEAL to join later as we fashion out immediate industrialization moralities or policy alternatives that will mitigate the impact of the agreement on the Ghanaian Economy. #bondof1844
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 11:43:43 +0000