PETER MANDELSON, the European Union Commissioner on Trade has stated that the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with Ghana and African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) countries will protect ACP producers, domestic and regional markets.
Asked whether developing countries involved in the agreement will be protected, he said yes, they will, explaining further that, that is what they are designed to do. "They will help build regional markets in the long term".
He said the goal is not simply to protect domestic and regional markets for the sake of protecting them, but to allow them to grow and develop sufficient strength to compete more widely. That means transition periods and progressive opening, and that is exactly what the EPAs allow for.
Mr. Mandelson further stressed that it was in the interest of businesses in Ghana to have easy and cheap access to imported goods, and it was certainly in the interest of Ghanaian consumers. On the question of the agreements providing for and supporting the space of ACP countries to formulate and pursue their own development strategies the EU Trade Commissioner said, "Nothing in the EPAs will stop West African countries from formulating their own development strategies - the whole point of EPAs is to be part of those strategies". He said the EU will also be providing development aid to help assist with the costs of implementing EPAs and to help cover the adjustment issues.
On the Singapore Issues of Investment, Competition Policy and Government Procurement and the question of whether they should be unconditionally excluded from trade agreements with the European Union, Mr. Peter Mandelson said he did not believe they should be excluded because they are necessary for Ghana's growth and that of ACP countries as well.
He reiterated that he has no intention of imposing them. "Asia and Latin America are channelling foreign investment into the infrastructure and job creation their developing economies need. Africa in contrast is trapped by barriers to inward investment and fractured regional markets," he said. He said it is a tragedy for Africa as its own investors choose to invest outside the continent and stressed that this act must be reversed.
"The so-called Singapore issues are about the rules that you need to implement if you want to attract and keep foreign investment and reduce costs in government procurement".
He noted that countries of West Africa have domestic rules on these issues and are developing them at regional level precisely because they believe they are important to development. "I do not claim that agreeing rules on investment, competition and government procurement with the EU will transform investment in West Africa overnight, but they are an important part of the package and a signal to the outside world - to outside investors - about the direction Governments in the region want to take," he said.
Peter Mandelson said the EPAs are in line with the Ghana government's priority to attract investors into the private sector in Ghana.
"One of the key ambitions of the Economic Partnership Agreements is precisely the creation of growing, attractive regional markets that will win inward investment and keep African investment from flying abroad," he ended.
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