OKAY.... THIS IS PART ONE OF MY UNDERSTANDING OF GHANA AND EUROPEAN UNION TRADE RELATIONS..... THIS PIECE PICKS UP OUR STORY FROM THE IMMEDIATE POST INDEPENDENCE ERA.... ENJOY.... PART TWO FOLLOWS SHORTLY!!!!!!! (PARDON ALL TYPOS) Background of ACP/EU Relations In December 2007 Ghana and the European Union initialed an Interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in Accra, provides a framework for trade in goods only between the two parties. This IEPA was necessitated by the looming deadline for the previous agreement that governed trade and aid relations between the ACP Countries – former colonies of Europe – and the European Union. The previous agreement known as the Cotonou Agreement had been in existence since 2000. It was preceded by Four Lome Accords (Lome I, Lome II, Lome III, Lome VI). All these agreements were underpinned by the so called ‘Special Relationship’ between the EU and the ACP Countries which among other things sought to grant ACP Countries preferential access to the EU market. In effect since 1975 when the first Lome I was signed Ghana and the ACP states have had duty free tariff free access to the EU market. The origins of the relationship between the EU and the ACP States go back to post-World War II when the European States saw integration as one of the measures to reduce the probability of another large-scale war in Europe. The Treaty of Rome brought the European Regional body into existence with the original six signatories being Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxemburg and Holland. Even at the time of signature of the Treaty of Rome, an avenue was created for the cooperation with a group of countries – mainly ex-colonies of signatory countries of the treaty – known as Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTS). However these essentially were West and Central African Countries with colonial ties to France. France made it a condition for accession to the Union that this accommodation be made for its colonies and ex-colonies. An instrument called the Regime of Association was created in 1957 to serve as a vehicle for transmission of funds for development in the OCTs under the first European Development Fund (EDF), which was established in 1958. In 1963 the relationship between 18 newly independent Francophone African countries and the EEC was formalized with the signing of the Yaounde Convention in Yaounde, Cameroon, establishing the basis for future ACP-EU cooperation. The objective of this cooperation from the EU point of view was accelerated economic development of the newly independent African Countries, hence the EDF ( European Development Fund) which was earmarked for development and infrastructural projects. This fund was utilized by many African countries including Ghana in building infrastructure. The Commonwealth Countries with colonial and historic ties to the United Kingdom (including Ghana) were not part of this Euro-African partnership at the time but that was to change with the accession of the UK to the EU in 1973. The partnership was now between an expanding Europe and countries now including some from Africa, The Caribbean, and Pacific States. The EU made a distinction among the Commonwealth Countries, excluding the ‘associables’ – countries like India, deemed too developed to warrant special relations stemming from the partnership. Other countries in Africa, The Caribbean and Pacific called the ‘non-associables’ that were underdeveloped were invited to negotiate with the EU. The Georgetown Agreement that created the ACP Group was signed in 1975 between the EU and 46 ACP Countries. This was after ACP Countries had taken a decision in 1973 to re-negotiate the Yaounde agreements with the EU as a bloc rather than in regional groupings. Consequently, the stronger negotiating position won the ACP States major concessions, resulting in a non-reciprocal trade agreement ( where EU imports attract duties at our ports but our exports did not attract duties at EU ports) as well as compensation mechanisms to offset losses resulting from commodity price instability. Globally, this was a period of instability following the oil crisis in 1973 when Middle-Eastern oil producing countries stopped oil exports to western nations. The EU was anxious to secure raw material supplies from its former colonies, hence the sweeping concessions to the ACP States. The concessions were also in response to the United Nations call to rich nations to take steps to address terms of trade inequalities between themselves and the developing world. The Lome I Convention that succeeded the two Yaounde Conventions (1963-1969, 1969-1975) was signed in 1975 and differed from its predecessors in very fundamental ways. The Yaounde Conventions emphasized reciprocity and non-discrimination, meaning that trade was to be conducted on equal terms, with no concessions given to the Oversees countries and Territories (ie African countries). The Yaounde Conventions had as one of its goals the creation of regional partnerships to ensure easy and smooth transition to a free trade area between Europe and Africa. Of course at the time the non-European partner countries to the agreement were all African Francophone countries so this was not difficult to envisage. However this was not to be with the onset of Lome I Convention, when the ACP States decided to negotiate as a bloc and also win favourable concessions from the EU. This was a good strategy indeed as Lome I, and its successors were based on non-reciprocal and discriminatory arrangements in favour of the ACP States (including Ghana). What this means is that though the ACP states had tariff free and quota free access to the EU market, goods from the EU attracted duties at our ports, this has been the case since 1975. World events leading to shifts in geo-political alignments, as well as downturns in the global economy resulted in the erosion of bargaining power of the ACP bloc, therefore subsequent renewals of the Lome Convention displayed less of the spirit of consideration that existed in Lome I. Concessions that had been won were rolled back with each renewal leading up to the Cotonou Agreement which had the termination date of December 2007. The demise of the Lome conventions can be attributed to their incompatibility with GATT and its successor WTO in terms of their being discriminatory and non-reciprocal. The last Lome Convention, Lome IV could only come into force after a waiver had been obtained from the WTO in 1995. The big question here though is this : WHY IS IT THAT THE ACP COUNTRIES WITH TARIFF AND QUOTA FREE ACCESS TO THE EU MARKET ACTUALLY LOST MARKET SHARE IN THE EU ...TO ASIAN AND SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES WHICH DID NOT ENJOY THE SAME CONCESSIONS? The answer lies in our complacence and inability to improve production efficiency hence our cost of production continues to be very high compared to other countries. THIS IS PART ONE ...PLEASE LETS LIMIT OUR DISCUSSIONS TO THE ISSUES HERE..... PART TWO FOLLOWS IN THE COMING DAYS!!!
Posted on: Sat, 12 Apr 2014 17:29:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015