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Saturday, November 21, 2009 22:23 GMT

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TRADE: NGOs Welcome EU Vow Not to Push Africa into EPAs
By Isolda Agazzi
GENEVA - Non-governmental organisations have expressed their satisfaction at the European Commission’s declaration that it would not put "undue pressure" on African and other countries to conclude the controversial trade deals called economic partnership agreements (EPAs).
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AFRICA: "Why Surrender Market to Subsidised European Goods?"
By Nasseem Ackbarally
PORT LOUIS - "Why should we surrender ourselves to the invasion of highly subsidised European goods? What will be the impact of capital outflows because of strategic services such as telecommunication, port, energy and water services being liberalised and privatised in the interest of European companies?"
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TRADE: ECOWAS Delay on EPA Allows Ghana to Re-Think
By Francis Kokutse
ACCRA - There are conflicting signals about whether west African countries will sign an economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the European Union, as the original deadline of Jun 30 has been postponed and stakeholders hold different views on the new deadline of end Oct. This may still allow Ghana to re-think its interim EPA.
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ECONOMY-AFRICA: Deny Neoliberal Consensus
Christi van der Westhuizen interviews PATRICK BOND, professor and activist
CAPE TOWN - Africa should ‘‘deny consensus’’ at multilateral level to ensure that the region’s interests are taken seriously, says Professor Patrick Bond speaking on how Africa should approach this week’s high-level United Nations’ meeting on the global economic crisis.
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Q&A: Regional Integration in Southern Africa Takes Another Step
Stanley Kwenda interviews SINDISO NGWENYA, COMESA Secretary General
HARARE - Zimbabwe has just hosted the 13th Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) summit where a customs union among some of the region’s countries was launched. But will it improve regional trade and assist passage across borders for the member countries’ numerous women traders?
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TRADE: EPA Signing Threatens Southern African Customs Union
By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK - Fears that accession to an economic partnership agreement (EPA) in Southern Africa will destroy regional integration seem to be coming true after Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland (BLS) ignored a key provision of the Southern African Customs Union when they initialled their trade deal with the European Union last week.
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TRADE: ‘‘You Can’t Smoke Cigars in Brussels and Bulldoze Us’’
By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK - Namibia will sign an economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) when the outstanding contentious issues have been resolved through new wording in the texts of the interim EPA, says the country’s trade and industry minister Hage Geingob.
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TRADE: COMESA on Track with Establishing Customs Union
By Stanley Kwenda
HARARE - Zimbabwe will finally host the 13th Common Market for Eastern and Southern African (COMESA) summit in the resort town of Victoria Falls in June where the regional grouping is expected to launch its customs union.
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TRADE: Southern Africa Still Kicking Against Controversial EPA
By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK - High-level talks at a Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) meeting in Gaborone last week failed to produce an agreement on the signing of the interim economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the European Union.
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ECONOMY: China in Africa – South-South Exploitation?
By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK - It is a Sunday around five o’ clock in the afternoon when carpenter Thomas Haimbodi knocks off work. He is waiting for the lorry that will take him and his colleagues from the building site – the office building for the new ministry of lands and resettlement in Windhoek – to Katutura, the township on the outskirts of the Namibian capital.
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Q&A: More Investment in Production Won’t Cure African Food Crisis
Hilaire Avril interviews GILLES SAINT-MARTIN, agricultural research expert
PARIS - The food crisis in African states will not be solved by investment to spur agricultural production because the problem is not food output but poverty that is making food unaffordable for urban Africans.
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TRADE: EC Manufactured Bogus ‘African Business’ Support for EPAs
By Julio Godoy
BRUSSELS - The exposure of the European Commission's (EC) manufacturing of African business support for the contentious economic partnership agreements (EPAs) has so far elicited little action by members of the European Parliament.
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TRADE: ‘‘EPAs Will Prevent African States From Achieving MDGs’’
By Stanley Kwenda
JOHANNESBURG - The economic partnerships agreements (EPAs) will push African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries ''deeper'' into poverty and negatively affect the livelihoods of people living in ACP countries. These trade deals ''will prevent'' African countries from achieving the United Nations’ millennium development goals (MDGs).
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The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union and the former colonies of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific region (ACP) are supposed to be in place soon. According to Brussels, they are an opportunity for these countries to shun isolation and expand access to international markets. But the ACP countries are anxious about being strangled by EPA rules.