Full text of the letter: Namibia NGO letter 100618

Answer: De Gucht reply to NGO letter on Namibia 100712

Jean-Jacques Grodent (SOS Faim): Les APE nous sauveront-ils des crises alimentaires?

Karin Ulmer (APRODEV): EPAs: Can better safeguards help?

Sanya Reid-Smith (Third World Network): Services, investments and trade-related issues

invitation et le programme en français: invitation séminaire APE FR

The purpose of the seminar is to take stock of the EPA negotiations and implementation and to assess the EPAs in the light of the global crises.

The seminar will take place at The International Auditorium; Boulevard du Roi Albert II, N° 5/2, B-1210 Brussels on Thursday 29 April 2010 from 9:00 to 17:00.

The following civil organisations are contributing to the organisation of the event (preliminary list): ActionAid, African Trade Network, APRODEV, Africa Groups Sweden, Caribbean Policy Development Centre, ENDA, Forum Syd, ICCO, Oxfam International, Pacific Network on Globalisation, Partnership for Change, SOS Faim, Third World Network Africa, Transnational Institute, Traidcraft, and 11.11.11.

Programm:

9:00 – Registration and coffee

9:15 - Opening: Welcoming and purpose of the meeting:

9:30 – Key note address: Martin Khor, Director South Centre: EPAs in times of crises

10:00 – Civil society perspectives on the state of the play

• Maureen Penjueli (Pacific Network on Globalisation): Pacific perspectives
• Cheikh Tidiane Dieye (ENDA) : African perspectives
• Shantal Munro (Caribbean Policy Development Centre) : Caribbean perspectives

11:00 – 11:15 Coffee

11:15 – Panel: The global Food crisis and EPAs

• Jean-Jacques Grodent (SOS Faim) : The global food crisis and the right to food.
• NN, Réseau des organisations paysannes et de producteurs de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (ROPPA): Food crisis, EPAs and African small holders
• Karin Ulmer (APRODEV) : Can better Safeguards help?

12:00 – Reactions from the floor

12:30 – 13:30 – Lunch

13:30 – Panel:  Rethinking EPAs

• Emily Jones (Oxford University): Updating the EPAs in light of the crises
• Katrin A. Kuhlmann (German Marshall Fund) : A new US-EU approach to trade with Sub-Sahara Africa

Reactions from the floor

• Sanya Reid-Smith (Third World Network): Services, investments and trade-related issues
• Viviana Munoz (South Centre): Intellectual property rights

Reactions from the floor

15:15 – 15:30 – Coffee

15:30-  Why is there still only one “full” EPA (and should there be more) ?

• Debate among representatives of Civil Society, the European Parliament,

the EU Commission and the ACP

16:45 – Closure

17:00 –  ENDS

For registration please inform marc.maes@11.be of the person(s) wishing to attend.

(…) First, we must put an embargo on negotiations with the EU until we have our house in order. As long as the EU goes on putting pressure on us and forcing individual countries to sign separately, we cannot even think of an alternative. We have time. Europe does not have time.

Then I suggest that the heads of state of SADC and East African countries meet for half a day and mandate their trade ministers to negotiate a COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa)-like customs union that should include COMESA, SADC and the East African Community to begin putting in place what they had agreed in 2008.

They should lay out a time-scale (for harmonising) their customs tariffs and complex issues like rules of origin, facilitation of trade and transportation and information networks.

This will take time but they should work out agreements on these issues in order that these countries first drop barriers to trade and investments and movement of people amongst themselves before they open up to the outside world. And by outside world I mean also China, India, Brazil and the U.S.

Our parliaments must take their responsibility seriously. None of the parliaments in our countries is sufficiently aware of what is happening. (…)

read the full article on IPS. Read also part two of the interview.

EPAs have two pillars: trade liberalization and development. In addition to reducing poverty, they also aim to foster the gradual integration of ACP countries into the world economy and to promote regional integration. All of which is noble and good. But after seven years of fruitless discussions, Europe is now attempting to impose the agreements by force rather than dialogue. If the agreements were finalized in their present form, they would deny ACP countries the essential political instruments necessary for their development. The result would be a total contradiction with the initial objectives, compromising regional integration, exacerbating poverty and preventing countries from diversifying production and freeing themselves from dependence on a few basic commodities.

source: CTA Brussels

Read Ouédraogo’s article “5 raisons de suspendre les négociations sur les APE” on Jeune Afrique (FR)

The Southern African Peoples Solidarity Network (SAPSN) is a regional network embracing a wide range of civil society organizations, labour and social movements from all the countries of the whole Southern African region.

Amongst many concerns common to all the countries and peoples of our region, we also have to deal with the economic and political relations between the governments of our region and the European Union (EU). These have most recently been expressed in their negotiations over so-called Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).

In this context we observe the active and highly questionable interventions of representatives of the European Commission (EC) on the ground in various of the countries and in relation to targeted governments in our region. This has recently included criticisms and barely veiled threats targeted against the government of Namibia.

Meeting in Windhoek, Namibia, 24-25 March 2010, we take this opportunity to commend the stand taken by the government of Namibia – actively supported by Namibian labour and social movements and other national stakeholders – not to accept the many highly contentious demands inserted into the EPA negotiations by the EU.

We also note that EC negotiators manipulate the perceived aid and trade needs of various African governments to propel them into agreeing to the extensive opening up of their economies to European exporters and investors. The self-serving and opportunistic tactics of the EC are also evident in their negotiation and initialing of an interim EPA agreement with the government of Zimbabwe which they simultaneously denounce and sanction as a paraiah state.

We observe and deplore the multiple pressures to which African (and other governments) are being subjected by the EC, and the simultaneous persuasions and false reassurances from many European politicians. But we are also aware of the “Global Europe” strategic aims driving the international EU offensive to maintain its competitive position in the world and to secure its continued dominance over Africa’s rich resources.

In the EU’s pursuit of these global aims, existing African regional groupings – the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in our region of Africa – have been broken up through the EPA negotiations with the EU. African governments, however, also carry responsibility for the success of the EU’s divide and rule tactics.

Thus, we urge all African governments to resist the EU’s EPA offensive, reverse the damaging fragmentation of SADC and counter the threats to the integrity of SACU and , instead, to reunite and act decisively to advance and deepen the development cooperation and integration of the Southern African region.

We urge all African governments not to compromise their policy-making (political) rights and obligations to their peoples by signing long-term trade, investment, services and other areas of liberalization through EPAs with the EU, or other similar ‘free trade’ agreements with other governments, North or South.

Thus, we demand a suspension of any further EPAs negotiation until all the implications have been fully investigated and alternatives devised throughtransparent and inclusive processes.

In the face of current profound economic, socio-economic, social and environmental stresses and pressures in our countries, and looming climate change challenges to the whole region, we are committed to do all we can, as the peoples of this region, to ensure that our governments are responsive and accountable to us and do not undermine our rights and block our development and security aspirations through their adverse agreements with foreign governments and concessions to powerful financial and economic forces.

www.sapsn.org

read also the New ERA article “Namibia inspires NGOs’ anti-EPA campaign” and the IPS article “Reclaim Control over EPA Talks” reporting from the meeting.

(Brussels, 25 September 2009): Through a collective mass fax and e-mail action, more than 80 organisations in 30 countries across Europe, Africa and the Pacific have today called on decision-makers to fundamentally change the course of the ongoing negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union and ACP countries. The EU approach to these negotiations is the main problem, activists say.

“EPAs were supposed to promote ACP countries’ development and regional integration, but the EU’s approach to the negotiations has undermined these objectives” said Alhassan Cissé, Food Rights Co-ordinator from ActionAid Senegal. “Concluding EPAs on this basis would severely constrain ACP countries’ scope to maintain or introduce measures to support their economies and to defend jobs, food security, environmental sustainability and any efforts to build regional integration in Africa”.

David Hachfeld from Oxfam International: “Whilst the European Commission is publicly promising to take a more flexible approach going forward, it has instead continued to pressure regions into liberalising further and faster than is wanted”.

In their faxes and e-mails, activists and campaigners accuse the European Commission of pressuring ACP-Countries to take on new obligations that go beyond WTO compatibility requirements. They urge European decision-makers to allow flexible market access arrangements and to meet ACP requests for the re-negotiation of contentious issues included in the agreements. ACP civil society organisations call on their governments to stand firm and not to give in to EU pressures. They demand that the ACP governments suspend negotiations as long as the financial crisis rages in their countries.

Marc Maes from 11.11.11 in Belgium: “The EU must fully respect ACP positions on services, intellectual property and Singapore Issues and refrain from pressuring countries into agreement in these, or any other areas. It must also refrain from undermining the policy space of the ACP countries to implement their own development strategies and implement measures to deal with the effects of the global economic, food and climate crises”.

The 27^th September 2009 marks the 7^th anniversary of the launch of the EPA talks. Since 2004 civil society organisations in the EU and the ACP countries have declared this Stop EPAs Day, a day of protest against the EU approach to EPAs.

Despite pressure from the EU, only one out of six regions has concluded a full regional trade deal so far. Whilst a number of countries were pressured into interim Agreements at the end of 2007 under the threat of losing market access to the EU, more than half of the ACP countries have not agreed to any form of EPA, such is their degree of concern with these agreements. Many ACP countries are calling for the deals not to be signed and for contentious clauses to be renegotiated.

Notes to Editor:
The text of the mass fax and e-mail action can be found on www.epawatch.eu

Press contacts:
Chris Coxon, ActionAid, +32 2 503 24 22 / +32 488 878 381

More Information:
Marc Maes, 11.11.11, +32 497 600 442
David Hachfeld, Oxfam International, +49 176 24112361

The activities take place at least in the following countries and regions and are supported by several organisations

Africa

• African Trade Network
• Acord International

Austria

• ATTAC Austria
• Globale Verantwortung

Belgium

• 11.11.11
• CNCD
• SoS Faim
• Solidarité socialiste
• Oxfam solidarité
• Gresea
• CADTM
• Vredeseilanden

Bulgaria

• Za Zemiata

Burkina Faso

Burundi 

Cameroon

Chad

Denmark

• MS ActionAid Denmark;  direct link to action
• Africa Contact
• U-landsforeningen Svalerne
• KULU
• Ibis

Ethiopia

EU

Direct link to action

• 11.11.11.
• Traidcraft
• Oxfam International
• ActionAid International

France

• Aitec
• Agronomes et Vétérinaires Sans Frontières 
• ATTAC
• CCFD – Terre solidaire
• CFSI
• CGT
• Eau Vive
• Equilibre et Population
• GRET
• Oxfam France – Agir Ici
• Peuples Solidaires
• Secours Catholique – Caritas France
• Terres des Hommes
• Union syndicale Solidaires

Germany

Direct link to action: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

• StopEPA-Kampagne:
  ATTAC
  FIAN Deutschland
  Germanwatch e.V.
  Informationsstelle südliches Afrika
  issa e.V.
  Kirchliche Arbeitsstelle Südliches Afrika (KASA)
  Koordination Südliches Afrika (KOSA) e.V.
  Koordinierungskreis Mosambik (KKM) e.V.
  medico international
  Netzwerk Afrika-Deutschland
  Oxfam Deutschland e.V.
  Pazifik Informationsstelle
  Tanzania-network.de e.V.
  terre des hommes
  weed
  Welthaus Bielefeld

Ghana

Guinea

Ireland

• Comhlamh
• Oxfam Ireland
• Trocaire

Italy

Direct link to action

• Amici dei Popoli
• Cestas
• Terra Nuova
• Fair
• the Italian Africa network

Kenya

Mali

Malta

• Kopin
• Skop
• Inizjamed
• Koperattiva Kummerċ Ġust (the Fair Trade Cooperative)
• Cam Youths

Mauretania

Mozambique

Netherlands

• Coalitie voor Eerlijke Handel:
  AEN Afrika-Europa Netwerk
  Cordaid
  Evert Vermeer Stichting
  Fairfood
  Hivos
  ICCO
  IUCN NL
  Oxfam Novib
  Platform Aarde, Boer, Consument
  SOMO
  Transnational Institute
  Wemos
• Both ENDS

Pacific

• PANG

Rwanda

Senegal

• Congad

Slovenia

• Institute for African Studies

Spain

• Setem
• Hegoa
• Plataforma rural
• Intermon Oxfam,
• Ecologistas en Acción,
• Acsur las Segovias,
• Euskadi Federation of NGO,
• World Rural Forum

Sweden

• Africa Groups of Sweden
• Forum Syd

Tanzania

UK

Direct link to action

• Traidcraft

Friday, 25th Sept 2009

Civil Society in 30 Countries Demand Turnaround in EPA negotiations
Public Protest Against EPAs

On 25th September 2009, hundreds of farmers, traders, students, women groups and civil society from across Kenya shall congregate at Uhuru Park to proclaim their concerns about the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) currently under negotiation between the European Union (EU) and African countries. The protesters shall deliver a petition to the Ministry of Trade as well as Trade committee of the Kenyan parliament.

The route plan includes:
0830: Gather at Uhuru-park
0900: Proceed through Kenyatta Avenue to Ministry of Trade offices (GPO building), then onwards to the Parliament building
1030: Return to Uhuru-Park for media interviews
1100: Disperse and return home

Additionally, through a collective mass fax and e-mail action, more than 80 organisations in 30 countries across Europe, Africa and the Pacific have called on decision-makers to fundamentally change the course of the ongoing negotiations. The multiple messages are aimed at stressing the importance of bold committed African leadership displayed by only supporting trade and economic policies that lead to the development of their people.

The 27th September 2009 marks the 7th anniversary since the initiation of Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations. EPAs are free trade agreements that require African countries to open up their borders to duty and tariff-free goods and services from Europe.

Almost two years after the original 2007 deadline the negotiations are far from over. In fact it has become increasingly clear that EPAs are not fundamentally concerned about Africa’s development but are designed to further the geo-economic interests of European corporations and capital.

Despite the pressure from the EU, only one out of six regions has concluded a full regional trade deal so far.
Whilst a number of countries including Kenya were pressured into interim Agreements at the end of 2007 under the threat of losing market access to the EU, more than half of the African countries have not agreed to any form of EPA. Such is their degree of concern with these agreements. Many African countries are calling for the deals not to be signed and for contentious clauses to be renegotiated.

/END
Ruthpearl Wanjiru Ng’ang’a

ACORD is an Africa-led International Alliance Working for Social Justice and Development
ACORD – The Agency for Co-operation & Research in Development ACK Garden House, 1st Floor Wing C 1st Ngong’ Avenue P.O Box 61216-00200 Nairobi – Kenya

Tel: +254 20 2721172 OR +254 20 2721185/6 or +254 733 255 306
Fax: +254 20 2721166
Website:  http://www.acordinternatinal.org/

Therefore, many NGOs in several European and African countries call for a turnaround in the negotiations. And you can support them!

What can you do?

On 25th of September 2009, send a fax or e-mail to Europaen decision makers .  These can be the European Commissioner for Trade,  a Trade or Development Minister in your country, or the high-ranking civil servants in charge of the negotiations in your country. Below is a fax message which you may use or adopt,  as you like.

Dear Sir/Madam

The 27^th September 2009 marks the 7^th anniversary of the launch of EPA talks. Almost two years beyond  the 2007 deadline, the negotiations that will define the future of EU-ACP trade relations are far from over. Only one region has concluded a full regional trade deal and more than half of the ACP countries have not agreed to any form of EPA, such is their degree of concern with these agreements.

Although EPAs were supposed to promote ACP countries’ development and regional integration, the EU’s approach to the negotiations has undermined these objectives. The interim arrangements imposed upon the ACP at the end of 2007 have not only failed to provide a basis for development friendly agreements, but have also set back regional integration.

While it promised to take a more flexible approach going forward, the Commission has instead continued to pressure regions into liberalising further and faster than is wanted or is appropriate to these economies. It has insisted that countries sign interim EPAs, without first removing ‘contentious issues’, despite regular requests from ACP countries; and it has also persisted in pressuring countries to take on new obligations that go beyond WTO compatibility requirements.

The European approach to EPAs remains unacceptable and must be turned around.

We call upon you:

• not to undermine the policy space of the ACP to implement their own development strategies and put in place measures to deal with the effects of the global economic, food and climate crises;
• to fully respect ACP positions on services, intellectual property and Singapore Issues – and refrain from pressuring countries into agreement in these, or any other areas;
• to respond positively to proposals for flexible market access arrangements and any requests from ACP countries for alternative solutions;to respond positively to ACP requests for renegotiation of contentious issues in interim EPAs. Revision of these issues in interim EPAs must not be conditional upon the agreement of new issues or so-called ‘full’ EPAs, nor should ACP countries be pushed to sign interim EPAs without resolving contentious issues.