Namibia’s EPA stance worries EU
New Era | 08 July 2009
Namibia’s EPA Stance Worries EU
by Desie Heita
BRUSSELS, Belgium – Not only is the European Union (EU) uncomfortable with Namibia’s ambiguity on interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), but it is also concerned about the possibility of a legal challenge over Namibia’s access to duty-free quota free since last year.
Namibia too must realise that at one point the EPA would want to move on towards implementation and, if not part of EPA, Namibian beef would enter EU through the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), a trade regime that attracts ad valorem and specific import duty or tariff per tonne.
“The train goes on, if Namibia does not jump on board it would be too late for anything. We have to move on towards the implementation of EPA,” says Lutz Guellner, spokesperson for EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton.
The EU says the often repeated concerns by Namibian Minister of Trade and Industry, Hage Geingob, on most favoured nation and regional integration are neither here nor there. So too are South Afridca’s concerns of trade deflection.
Ashton told New Era that one of her priorities now is to ensure that “the EU is safe from legal challenge,” and “those benefiting do not suffer from legal challenge”.
Europe’s trading partners could haul the EU before the World Trade Organisation with the trade dispute of EU not giving them duty-free quota free access while giving it to Namibia, without legal agreement.
“The legal basis should be preserved,” says the EU.
Ashton says in dealing with the African-Caribbean and Pacific countries, the impetus of the EU is on regional integration, while at the same time ensuring that each country, within any trade grouping, achieves what it wants to achieve without such achievement hindering the opportunity for other countries.
“My focus is to make sure that those who benefit do not suffer from legal challenge,” says Ashton.
Ashton does, however, hope that Namibia signs the interim EPA agreement, “as I understand their concerns have been addressed”.
Namibia is under no obligation to sign the EPA agreement.
However, should she decide not to, the only other trade regime under which Namibian beef, and other products, would enter the EU, would be the GSP where goods would attract about 14 percent of ad valorem and an additional couple of thousand euro per tonnage of goods entering the EU.
This would be in stark contrast to the duty-free quota free trade regime, that Namibia enjoys since January 2008, after the initialling of the interim EPA along with Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Mozambique.
This was, however, extended to Namibia on the understanding that she would sign the EPA agreement with other countries.
Meanwhile, the EU says Namibia’s repetitive complaints about not having received a firm commitment from the EU to honour the concerns raised in Swakopmund are baseless, as Ashton has written to the nominated contact person for SADC group, who is the Botswana Minister of Trade and Industry Neo Moroka, and the letters copied to the respective country embassies to EU.
As for regional integration, the EU says the EPA consolidates regional integration. Before EPA, there are four different trade or import regimes available for SADC Countries, such as the GSP, the Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) with South Africa and the ‘everything but arms’ trade regime.
“The EPA was to streamline these regimes into one agreement that simplifies trade and reaches the medium term part of harmonised trade regime,” says the EU. “It is my ambition to support regional integration and economic growth,” said Ashton.
EU also says South African Trade Minister, Rob Davies, is being unfair with his threats to put up trade barriers to counter trade deflection.
“This is profoundly unfair on the weaker parties of the group. For 10 years that the TDCA agreement has been in place, not once did the weaker group members complain to South Africa but coped with the terms of the TDCA because they understood the greater of the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU),” says an EU official.
