Zambia en Comoren weigeren op het laatste moment handelsverdrag met EU te tekenen (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Two southern African nations abruptly refused to sign a free-trade agreement with the European Union on Saturday at the last minute before they together with four other countries were due to sign on the dotted line.
The European Commission proudly announced the signing of an Economic Partnership Agreement with the Eastern and Southern Africa regional grouping (ESA) of nations on Monday, but in the end, only Mauritius, Seychelles, Zimbabwe, and Madagascar.
The setback for the commission's trade negotiators comes in the wake of two other recent failures to convince developing nations to sign up to its trade deals.
In June, Namibia pulled back from signing an EPA between the EU and its regional grouping, the Southern African Development Community. In October, Guyana balked at joining other Caribbean nations in a similar pact with Brussels, although it has since signed, but with strong reservations after being threatened to be kicked off the EU's list of countries with market access.
Zambia's commerce minister, Felix Mutati, his country's representative in negotiations with the EU, declined "at the last minute" to sign, according to local sources, having earlier given indications he would do so.
According to the same sources, Mr Mutati had asked the EU trade commissioner, Catherine Ashton, to simplify the language in the agreement.
Mr Mutati is also chief negotiator on behalf of the ESA regional grouping, meaning that while some countries have moved ahead with a signature, their main representative has declined to do so.
In response to this position, he told reporters that Zambia will eventually sign, but that at this point, the country will for now "lead the group from behind."
"A father never eat first," he said. "Once others have eaten, then I will eat."
At the press conference after the signing ceremony in Grand Blaie, Mauritius, the representative of the Comoros, Hassane El-Barwani, said that he had not signed due to "institutional difficulties," including the fact that, according to him, the Comoros are "under the control of the International Monetary Fund."
Details as to why the two countries decided not to sign remain hazy, and in an earlier press release put out by the commission, it appeared that it was Madagascar and not Zambia that had refused to sign the agreement.
According to commission spokesperson Lutz Guellner, Zambia had underscored that they do plan to sign at a later date, but that they wanted to discuss the issue with other least developed countries in the region first.
"They have been quite helpful and constructive throughout," he added.
However, the EPAs have repeatedly come under significant criticism from development NGOs and European civil society groups for what they describe as Brussels' "aggressive negotiating stance" and its demand that countries crack open their economies long before they are ready to do so.
Ms Ashton nevertheless described winning the signature of the four countries as a success.
"We now have the foundation to build a more comprehensive trade partnership that will support the ESA region's work to build diverse and sustainable economies. This agreement brings a diverse region together under a single trade arrangement with the EU, tailored to the specific needs of the region and recognising its diversity."
All imports from the countries that signed the interim EPA have received duty and quota free access to the EU since January 2008. As a result of the new agreement, these countries must now liberalise their markets to EU imports over the next 15 years, gradually removing tariffs on between 80 percent and 98 percent of imports from the EU depending on the country.
Among the products excluded from liberalisation are sensitive agricultural and manufactured products such as milk, meat, vegetables, textiles, footwear and clothing.