Cameroon’s Biya supports partial signature of EPAs
Panapress - Douala - 03/12/2007
Cameroon’s Biya supports partial signature of EPAs
Douala, Cameroon — Cameroonian President Paul Biya says he is in favour of the signing of partial Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the EU and the Central African Region.
In a correspondence sent to the chairman of the European Commission, Manuel Barroso, Paul Biya said the current numerous difficulties made the conclusion of a comprehensive agreement covering all topics unlikely, because of the short time ahead to the 31 December 2007 deadline.
He said he therefore favoured "the signing of a partial agreement covering notably the trade aspect of the goods and related development issues, by including the promise to deal with the other topics next year," as suggested by Barroso.
Paul Biya said the comprehensive agreement on EPAs should be signed later.
The Cameroonian government expects a lot from these EPAs to export some of its agricultural and industrial products into the European countries, thanks to the removal of customs tariffs.
"We must first preserve the asymmetric tariff preferences, which our essentially agricultural but also industrial products, notably aluminium, benefit from, when entering the EU market," the Cameroonian trade minister, Luc-Magloire Mbarga Atangana, said.
He added that if the EPAs were not signed, those tariff preferences would no longer have any legal basis and those products would be subjected to the common duties, also called Generalised Preference System (GPS), before entering the European market.
The Cameroonian leader’s letter to the chairman of the European Commission comes ahead of the 31 December deadline for the signing of the new Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).
The Cameroonian President’s position runs counter that of the African Industrial Association (AIA) of which Cameroon’s Célestin Tawamba is the vice president.
An EU emissary is expected to visit Cameroon this week to finalise the signing of a partial agreement with Cameroon.
The signing of the EPAs by Cameroon means the opening of the borders, one of the consequences of which would be the break-up of the already weak existing industrial fabric.
