South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland will
also attend the one-day meeting, Charles Mubita, Manager: Media,
Publications and Public Affairs of the SADC Secretariat, confirmed from
the Botswana capital yesterday.
The EU will not be present at the meeting.
Mubita described the event as an internal meeting which will try to establish a common understanding on the EPAs.
A signing ceremony was scheduled in Brussels last week, but had to be cancelled.
Up to now, Namibia has only provisionally initialled the interim EPA to
ensure that its beef, fish and table grapes enjoy quota- and tariff
free access to EU markets. For the country to fully exploit improved
market access to the EU's 500 million people, it must take the first
step and sign the interim EPA.
The parties can then further negotiate the full EPA.
Major concerns about the impact of the EPAs on SADC remain, especially
as far as Namibia, South Africa and Angola (ANSA) are concerned.
Although the EU has made allowances on most of the key issues, two huge
stumbling blocks remain: that of the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) and the
Definition of Parties (DoP). Observers have warned that the MFN clause
in the existing interim EPA text might hamper south-south trade, while
the DoP clause could compromise SADC's regional integration plans.
This week, Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila raised reservations about the EPA.
Opening a financial strategy workshop at the Bank of Namibia (BoN) on
Wednesday, Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said trade in services features
prominently on the agenda of on-going negotiations.
Any liberalisation in trade in services has to be done in a manner
that is supportive of the country's national development objectives,
including addressing pertinent issues of local incorporation, skills
development and uniform application of prudential measures so that
regulators could exercise unfettered due diligence, she said.
Meanwhile, the EU is confident that the interim EPAs will be signed
within a few weeks after nearly two years of drawn-out and, at times,
dramatic negotiations.
Earlier this week, Business Day reported that EU Trade Commissioner
Catherine Ashton, who attended the swearing-in of South African
President Jacob Zuma last weekend, was optimistic the deal would be
concluded soon.
Ashton said the EU was willing to give South Africa's new Trade and
Industry Minister Rob Davies time to get to grips with the
negotiations, but made it clear the signing would go ahead with or
without South Africa. South Africa has its own trade deal with the EU
under the Trade, Development and Co-operation Agreement (TDCA).
Should South Africa refuse to sign the interim EPA, it would have
far-reaching consequences for, amongst others, the Southern African
Customs Union (Sacu), one of the major revenue sources of Namibia.
The Namibian
Post published in: Zimbabwe News