SPYL Backs Government on EPAs
New Era, Windhoek
SPYL Backs Government on EPAs
By Staff Reporter
10 August 2009
WINDHOEK – The Swapo Party Youth League has come all out in support of Government’s refusal to sign the EPAs, claiming current negotiations with the European Union (EU) on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) are not beneficial to the country.
Swapo Youth League Secretary for Economic Affairs Veikkoh Nekundi in a media statement said the EU’s “underhanded tactics” in the current round of negotiations must be seen against the background of Namibia’s dependence on primary commodities for export earnings and its subsequent vulnerability to external factors.
Nekundi lambasted the EU for treating Namibia as an unequal partner. “Their relentless push to apply rigid free-trade principles to all sectors of the global economy, leaving less room for national development strategies, judging poor and rich countries by the same rules, and pushing aside social considerations such as poverty eradication and the integration of development considerations in trade policy matters, must be rejected by all especially the indigenous business people,” urged Nekundi.
World trade should enhance growth by allowing individual states to trade freely according to their comparative advantages. In the process living standards must be improved, employment created, tariffs and non-tariff barriers reduced and domestic investment boosted, the SPYL noted.
Namibia’s main concerns are that the EU is unwilling to include negotiated trade concessions regarding food security, infant industry protection, import taxes and free flow of goods.
Trade and Industry Minister Dr Hage Geingob has repeatedly said that Namibia is willing to commit to the EPAs once its interests are adequately considered and the country is treated like an equal partner.
Namibia, Angola and South Africa are the only countries in the SADC-EPA trade configuration that are yet to conclude interim EPAs with the EU.
