[ 2012-05-29 ]

Christian Council, Third World Network, others accuse Trade Minister over EPAs
PRESS STATEMENT ON EPA
24th May 2012

Ladies and gentlemen of the press, we represent a
cross-wide section of citizens groups and
constituencies of Ghana. We have gathered here
this morning to alert you to what we see as a
grave new development in the long-running
negotiations of the Economic Partnership
Agreements with the European Union.

Recent utterances by the Minister of Trade and
Industry confirm intelligence we have gathered
from various sources that the Minister is pushing
the Ghana government to sign the Interim Economic
Partnership Agreement, IEPA that was initialled in
2007.

At a recent public meeting of Ghana-EU Partnership
the Minister stated categorically that the
benefits of signing the EPAs far outweigh the
negatives. This comes on the heels of an interview
granted a local newspaper not too long ago where
she declared that Ghana will have no alternative
than proceed with signature of the IEPA in the
light of the lack of progress at the ECOWAS
level.

The Minister’s claims are not only incorrect. They
also contradict her own publicly stated positions.
For instance, just last month at the Doha
conference of the UNCTAD, she argued publicly that
the EPAs will only benefit European companies in
Africa. On many occasions since she took over the
job of Minister in 2009, she had argued that
serious changes will have to be made to the IEPA
as initialled before Ghana can consider signing.
As far as we are aware, none of these contentious
issues in the IEPA has been resolved. Certainly,
nothing has happened in terms of changes to the
IEPA since her statement in Doha to make her adopt
such a dramatic u-turn.

The Minister has also suggested that signing the
IEPAs is the only option to protect Ghanaian
exporters. This is not correct. So far only a tiny
handful of exporters stand to be affected if the
IEPA is not signed.
But even here, there is a mechanism to meet the
need of this few. The ECOWAS trade ministers
meeting last year in Accra, adopted a regional
mechanism (Solidarity Fund), put forward by her
own Ministry based on experts advice, to
compensate the few exporters in Ghana and Ivory
Coast who could be affected if there is no timely
progress on the EPAs. The Minister seems to have
done very little since the decision was taken to
ensure the operationalisation of the Fund

The Ministers’ inconsistencies and omissions only
serve to confirm information we have to the effect
that she has been pushing a reluctant cabinet to
sign the IEPAs.

It will be disastrous if the Minister succeeds in
this effort. As they stand now, the terms of the
Interim EPA will have devastating consequences for
domestic industry, especially in the manufacturing
and agricultural sectors, and therefore destroy
the jobs and livelihoods of millions of people.
The IEPAs will destroy the domestic and regional
markets for the most of job-creating and dynamic
manufacturing industries like furniture, plastics,
pharmaceutical, wire-weaving, etc, whose main
market is not Europe, but Ghana and the ECOWAS
region.

Ironically, this cost will be paid as an attempt
to meet the needs of a few exporters, which is not
even necessary since there are alternative means.

This is so plainly unacceptable and we call on the
public to reject the Minister’s attempts

Source - Joy News

... go Back