The Third World Network has bashed the haste in which
parliament has debated and approved the Economic Partnership (EPA) agreement
between Ghana (as member of the ECOWAS) and the European Union (EU).
Dr Yao Graham, the Coordinator of Third World Network who
has previously warned that about 40,000 industrial jobs will be lost in the
aftermath of signing of the agreement, has cited some clauses in the EPA that
are extremely dangerous not only to Ghana, but to member nations who will sign
it.
He made reference to a strong case made by the business
community representative through the Chief Executive of the Private Enterprise
Foundations, an NGO at a business forum held on the 26th of July at the Labadi
beach hotel by Daily Graphic, where the business community stated clearly why
government should not sign the agreement.
"In every study that have been done about the EPA
anywhere it has shown that there are major negative issues. The Ghana
government has constantly focused on the few exporters who will benefit from
our signing the EPA but have never paid enough attention to putting in the
public domain the cost of the EPA, this is why in a way for us, it is extremely
regrettable and disappointing", Dr Yao Graham added.
Key institutions and the Trade Ministry have backed this
agreement, and thought it will be of an advantage to the people of Ghana and
promote trade given Ghanaian exporters 100% access to the European market.
But Dr Graham is of the contrary, stating that, "a 100%
access means on paper that you can export anything that you want to the
European market, but what you actually export depends on what you are producing
and also how those things can compete in the European market; so 100% access is
a formal access and that in practice, the businesses. on whose account? The
government rushed to sign the agreement because they would have been facing
tariffs in the European market. It is small businesses who will benefit and are
basically people exporting seafood products, processed cocoa and some other
products."
The EPA he stated, is not about people who are producing
manufactured goods and not about people producing pharmaceuticals.
He cautioned "we should not focus on the nominal 100%
and where we are now." "What are we exporting to the EU and what are
we likely to export to the EU? We should rather discuss the cost benefit from
where we are starting and not in the abstract."
"We have a concrete reality of an economy which is
dependent on producing raw material, we have an economy where our manufacturing
sector has collapsed over the years because of trade liberalization, we have an
economy where the market where we sell our manufactured products are in the
West African regional market. Parliament could have taken note for the fact
that Ghanaian Business community has expressed concerns about the EPA, they
could have also taken note that Trade Unions have expressed their concerns.
Hence the Ghanaians should be considered when signing such agreements," he
added.
West Africa’s
economic powerhouse, Nigeria, and two other countries – The Gambia and Mauritania – had refused to sign the agreement.
Although Mauritania is no longer part of ECOWAS, it was
added to the sub-region for the purposes of the agreements.
The refusal of the three countries to sign onto the EPAs has
made it impossible for the implementation to start. This is because the
agreements require the signatures of all countries of the region before it can
be ratified by the various parliaments of member states.
Hamidu Abdul-Lateef
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