SA, EU to revisit economic agreements
Michael Appel
25 July 2008
South Africa and the European Union (EU) are expected to revisit the issue of economic partnership agreements as President Thabo Mbeki heads to France for an SA-EU summit, starting on Friday.
"Issues on the agenda of discussions are expected to include, among others, Southern African Development Community-EU economic partnership agreements," said the Department of Foreign Affairs in a statement this week.
The summit is taking place in the context of ongoing political dialogue under the auspices of the SA-EU strategic partnership and the SA-EU Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement.
It will be the first regular summit since the establishment of the partnership in May 2007 and is a continuation of discussions that took place during six SA-EU ministerial troika meetings since November 2004.
Economic partnership agreements
Economic partnership agreements are agreements entered into by each African country, committing to certain trade agreements with the EU, in an effort to create free trade areas.
While many African countries signed economic partnership agreements with the EU at the last African-EU Summit in Portugal in December 2007, South Africa felt the trade agreements favoured Europe too much.
Speaking at a recent briefing, Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa said South Africa had not yet signed an economic partnership agreement because it was not conducive to Southern African Development Community (SADC) integration.
Seeking greater market access
South Africa is likely to seek greater access to European markets while seeking some type of protection for domestic markets.
The minister argued that economic partnership agreements were not in line with World Trade Organisation standards and therefore needed to be reworked so as to benefit both parties.
Speaking in December last year, Mpahlwa highlighted that economic partnership agreements had already created a division within the SADC membership as some members had opted to negotiate the economic partnership agreement as part of another grouping, the Eastern and Southern African group.
"We had hoped that by forging a unified regional approach among the SADC states to the negotiations with an important trade partner, we would strengthen trade relations within the region as well as the region's trade relations with the EU," he said.
Least developed countries
The SADC economic partnership states had originally agreed that least developed countries should not be required to offer reciprocal opening of their markets to the EU.
"However, [least developed countries] are now required to open up 80% of their market to EU exports," said the minister.
Other issues on the agenda at the summit include environmental and climate change challenges, migration, food security, the World Trade Organisation Doha development round of talks, and Africa and global security issues.
Source: BuaNews
