Malawi president bashes EPAs

‘It’s a plan to divide Africa ’

By Thom Khanje

Lilongwe, Malawi Oct. 16, 2009 -- President Bingu wa Mutharika has torn apart the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) which the European Union wants to enter into with developing countries, describing them as a European conspiracy aimed at disintegrating Africa .

Addressing a press conference in Lilongwe on Wednesday, Mutharika said the EPAs were a “divide and rule” tactic for Europe and declared that Malawi will not sign the EPAs until all concerns are addressed.

“I know this because am one of the people who started the concept of regional integration in Africa,” said Mutharika, a former secretary general of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and top trade technocrat in the United Nations.

He called on other African countries not to sign the agreements as well.

The EPA is a reciprocal trade agreement under which developing countries are expected to trade on an equal footing with Europe as required by the World Trade Organisation – WTO unlike presently when only the developing countries send their goods into Europe under duty free.

“ Malawi will not sign, even if it means the country being the only one without signing. I have asked them to tell me even one benefit which Malawi will get from the agreement, and they haven’t,” said Mutharika.

He said the EPA was a plan by some “sinister” people in Europe to kill regional integration in Africa, wondering why the EU had created its own groups in Africa for EPA negotiations instead of going through existing groupings such Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc), Comesa and Economic Community for West African States (Ecowas).

“The EPAs should have been modelled along the existing regional blocks. But they are cutting across Africa , dividing the continent systematically. This is hypocrisy,” said Mutharika.

He warned other African countries to be cautious when signing the EPAs, saying if they are not careful, they will wake up one day and discover that regional groupings which they have worked hard to establish had become irrelevant.

He said all along, the EU has been trading with developing countries under the African, Carribean and Pacific (ACP) arrangement which he said they are now trying to do away with because they could not push it around.

“The ACP became too strong for them, so they have created the EPA to weaken us. Malawi will not be party to this as long as am president. May be the country will sign that after I have left,” said Mutharika.

Malawi is one of the few countries in Africa that still remains undecided on whether to sign.

While most of the 16 countries grouped with Malawi in the Eastern and Southern Africa – ESA have at least entered into interim arrangements with the European Commission on EPAs pending full ratification, Malawi has not moved a step towards signing the agreement.

Malawi wants the EU to commit itself on helping the country improve its infrastructure and industrial capacity before it can sign the EPAs.

“We have got a lot of bottlenecks which makes it impossible for us to compete with Europe in trade. We have to address our supply-side constraints first and we need their [EU] assistance to do that,” said former Minister of Trade Henry Mussa told Daily Times earlier this year.

But the European Commission has disputed fears that the EPA would kill local industries in Africa, saying on the country the country stand to benefit cheap industrial machinery and raw materials which they can import duty free from Europe under the EPA.

"Consumers stand to benefit more from lower prices of goods from Europe,” former EU Commissioner for Trade Peter Mendelson told the Malawi press last year.

Some international trade experts have advised Malawi not to sign the EPA since, as a Least Developed Country – LDC; the country has a right of opting out from the EPA in the meantime.

As an LDC, Malawi already benefits from almost universal tariff and quota free access to the EU market under the Everything But Arms – EBA arrangement, hence – compared to non-LDCs, the benefits of the country signing the EPA are more limited for Malawi .

Under the ESA negotiating group where Malawi belongs to, only Mauritius is on the verge of signing a full EPA with the EU. Other countries such as Comoros , Madagascar , Seychelles , Zambia and Zimbabwe signed interim agreements way back in 2007 but are yet to conclude their negotiations towards a full EPA.

Malawi alongside Djibouti , Sudan , Ethiopian and Eritrea are yet to take initial steps towards signing EPAs.The private sector in the country wants government to go ahead and sign and initial EPA agreement while continuing discussions on a full EPA with the EU but the civil society says government should not move a step forward until all the concerns have been addressed.