ZimTrade to hold EPAs seminars

countries.
In a statement, ZimTrade said the seminars would also impart information on issues still to be resolved in the on-going negotiations for the comprehensive EPA.
“At the end of the seminars we expect the business community to be aware of the negotiations that have taken place so far, understand how they can benefit from the iEPA as well as understand ZimTrade’s role in export trade issues,” it said.
Captains of industry, business executives, policymakers and representatives of trade facilitation institutions are expected to attend the seminars, which will be held next Tuesday in Harare and the following day in Bulawayo.
Zimbabwe signed the iEPA under the East and Southern African bloc with the EU on August 29, 2009 together with five other countries, namely Zambia, Comoros, Madagascar, Seychelles and Mauritius.
The European Union is negotiating EPAs with six groups of ACP countries. Negotiations started in 2002 and were due to have been concluded by January 31, 2007 while it was envisaged that the EPAs would enter into force on January 1, 2008.
This was the date when the ACP-EU trade relations were supposed to start being based on arrangements that did not need waiver or derogations from the World Trade Organisation rules.
However, this did not happen, as the ACP-EU representatives clashed on several outstanding issues which are still to be settled.
Trade relations between the ACP and EU under the Lome Conventions from 1975 to date, have mostly been covered by waivers or derogations from WTO rules, but the EU has felt that the international economic order has changed and requires trade arrangements that comply with WTO rules.
It is the understanding of the EU that compatibility with WTO rules requires reciprocity with each party liberalising its trade with the other in a manner that the final agreement was compatible with Article 24 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
In practical terms, regarding customs duty for instance, this means that the ACP countries should reduce their customs duties on almost all imports from the EU to zero.
Most ACP countries have continuously resisted the idea of reciprocity after studies indicated that this approach would result in serious adverse consequences such as job losses, closure of industries, loss of revenue as well as disorganising the economic integration processes underway in the ACP regions.
Other independent studies that research organisations carried out have corroborated these studies thereby making the EPAs controversial and requiring more time for all the parties to reach a consensus. – New Ziana.