EAC lawmakers call for more involvement in new EPA negotiations

EAC lawmakers call for more involvement in new EPA negotiations
BY GEORGE KAGAME


East African law makers have asked governments of the respective five member countries comprising the block to scrap the interim Economic Partnership Agreement signed between the East African Community and the European Union late 2007 and begin a fresh round of negotiations.
Speaking recently during the 4th Annual Inter-Parliamentary Relations Seminar in Kigali, the parliamentarians declared that the EPA Framework Agreement that was initialled between the EAC and EU last November was a raw deal and poorly negotiated. The controversial EPA, was signed in Lisbon after East African governments were allegedly coerced with the the threat of the Cotonou pact governing trade between the European Union and the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

The 2007 negotiations were limited only to ministers and technocrats, the legislators are now demanding that they be involved in EAC Common Market negotiations and to have their concerns considered before the final signing of the Comprehensive EPA Agreement. Their concerns include the flexibility and exceptions in market access, periodic and specific reviews, dispute settlements, and relevant institutions. The new round of negotiations the legislators pointed out should take place before June 2009.

They highlighted the "rapid developments" in East Africa and said the EAC now should focus more on South-South co-operation, which they consider to be more advantageous than that with the West, in order for the new negotiations to take place in a more transparent manner, the parliamentarians recommended that all EAC partner states assent to the East African Joint Trade Negotiation Bill recently.
Dr Francis Mangeni, a consultant on African trade and international trade policy, said the EU is once again moulding the developing world in its own image, and to negotiate itself into a permanent preferential place that assures its continued influence in order to secure an edge over competitors for resources, services and goods."
The seminar, officially opened by Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, brought together over 200 participants who included all the 45 EALA(East African Legislative Assembly) members; 15 Members of Parliament from each of the five EAC National Assemblies; East African ministers, senior government and EAC officials and 15 members of the Economic Community of Western African States parliament.

It was called to discuss the roles of national and regional legislators in the EAC integration process, ongoing negotiations on the EAC Common Market Protocol and the EU-EAC Economic Partnership Agreement. EALA speaker Abdirahin Haithar Abdi,said parliaments should be constantly appraised of the progress and developments on the ongoing negotiations of the EAC Common Market Protocol and the EPA negotiations.