African countries propose to list protected goods under EPA

Eastern and Southern African (ESA) countries have proposed to draw a list of goods that should be protected under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) which is under discussion between ESA and the European Union (EU), Zambian newspaper The Post reported on Monday.

Sixteen ESA countries proposed to have 30 percent of certain goods that should be protected and attract taxes, they also wanted the fisheries cluster to be included within the EPA as a chapter instead of a stand-alone agreement.

Commenting on the ongoing negotiations between ESA and EU, technical advisor of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Moses Tekere said: "Our main focus is to devise ways of how to block the EU if there will be an upsurge of their goods into our markets, so we will insist on gradual opening of the ESA regional market to EU."

The ESA configuration has given the COMESA secretariat the mandate to negotiate the EPA with EU with a view to opening up markets under the free trade reciprocity arrangements.

The negotiations will end in January 2008 and EU has suggested that EPA should come into force by 2018 but ESA configuration want the agreements to be effected by 2033.

Source: Xinhua