Don’t concede ECOWAS to EU —Parliament warns

Posted: Monday, September 6, 2010

ECOWAS Parliament has cautioned the executive organ against hastily opening the sub-region’s market to the European Union as concession for reaching a trade agreement between the two commissions. This was contained in a statement issued in Abuja and signed by Mr Thompson Uwem, a Communication Officer at the Commission.
The statement, said the commissions had since 2003 been negotiating a WTO-compliant Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). It said the negotiations were aimed at creating a free trade zone that would define their trade and economic relations for the next 20 years.
The statement said the position of the lawmakers was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of a two-day stakeholders’ sensitisation programme in Accra, Ghana. It said that the parliamentarians expressed concern about the potential impact of such opening on the sub-region’s productive capacity.
The statement added that the negotiators were offering to open 70 per cent of the sub-region’s market based on a liberalisation schedule. It stated that the parliamentarians also urged the sub-regional leaders to reject EU proposal for the scrapping of the Community levies imposed on imports into the sub-region.
The statement quoted the lawmakers as saying that levies on import as presently constituted was an independent source of financing sub-regional integration.
It explained that such levies were used to fund the activities of ECOWAS and the sister West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA).
The statement also quoted the lawmakers as asking for greater involvement in the trade negotiation process in order to come out with a better deal. It quoted the parliamentarians asexpressing concern about the multiplicity of trade regimes in the sub-region.