Southern Africa: EU to Open its Market to Region

BuaNews (Tshwane), 16 November 2007

The European Union (EU) will open up its market on a duty-free basis for products from countries in the Eastern and Southern African (ESA) region from 1 January 2008.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Secretary-General Erastus Mwencha was addressing the media Thursday, on the outcome of the just ended ESA-European Commission (EC) meeting in Brussels.

Mr Mwencha said ESA countries would be able to export their products to Europe on a duty-free basis except for sugar and rice.

The ESA-EC negotiations had been based around six clusters namely, development, market access, fisheries, trade in services, trade-related issues and agriculture.

He said the ESA would in the same period begin the process of liberalising its markets, without touching their tariffs, under a decade-long moratorium and a transitional period of up to 25 years.

Under the agreement, the Least Development Countries (LCDs) would be allowed policy space and flexibility in opening their markets, he added.

He said the meeting agreed on a development strategy on areas of joint infrastructure development, capacity building, institutional building, with detailed costing of some projects.

Mr Mwencha said the meeting also agreed that there would be increased resources which would have benchmarks, which would determine whether ESA countries would continue with their liberalisation of the market or not.

"In short, if ESA falls below the yardstick, then they do not have to liberalize their markets. This will ensure development," he said.

The ESA ministerial meeting also agreed on the need to unite as a region in order to facilitate regional integration, which is the basis of sustainable development.

"Ministers in particular stressed the fact that the most important aspect for ESA is for ESA to strengthen regional integration as a long-term measure. The ESA also stressed the fact development should be at the core of development," he said.

Mr Mwencha said the ESA would continue to negotiate on the other clusters, which were not agreed upon during the meeting.

He said for preparatory activities before implementing these agreements fully, the region needed about 27 billion Euros. He added that the EU had promised to release two billion Euros every year, starting from the year 2010.

Out of the 16 countries in the ESA, 12 fall in the LDC category.