A delegation of Members of Parliament from the European Union Parliament held a consultative meeting with the Chairperson of the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) group on the negotiations of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) between the EU and ESA.
The head of delegation, Vital Moreira, and his team met ESA Chairperson, who is also Zambia’s Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Hon. Robert Sichinga in Lusaka on 22 March 2012.
The meeting exchanged views on how the EPA negotiations were progressing and agreed on ways of further improve the process.
“We remain strongly committed to the EPA process, and it is our belief that a development-friendly EPA can and should contribute to the sustainable development of our economies. It can help create jobs and business opportunities, and may contribute to our integration into the world economy. This is important for the attainment of the MDGs, in particular the eradication of poverty,” Hon. Sichinga said.
“ESA believes that for an EPA to be an effective tool for sustainable development, it has to support regional integration and other issues which can enhance our capacity to produce goods and services competitively.”
Hon. Sichinga highlighted key issues, which are keeping some ESA countries from signing the EPAs, as: the absence of a binding commitment on development - in particular the provision of adequate resources to allow ESA countries build productive capacities; the insistence by the EU to limit ESA’s policy space to use export taxes for industrialization; and the issue of how much and when to liberalise.
He added that member States’ expectations of the EPA are high. The African group wants to help increase trade, promote diversification, attract EU investment and encourage technology transfer.
“We need to develop a globally competitive, green economy, that is sustainable, and one that will help us to take our economies to a higher level of sophistication. This will help us achieve the quantum leap we all aim for. We have to make this happen; and we look to the EPA to pave the way by providing the missing link between trade and development,”
Mr Moreira said the delegation was from the EU Parliament International Trade Committee, which is responsible for formulating trade policy in the Union, and so he urged ESA to engage in dialogue with the negotiating team from the EU so that all outstanding issues regarding the EPAs are resolved soon and amicably.