ACTUALITE ORCADE NEWS

MEETING OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS OF GHANA AND BURKINA FASO

Final Communiqué

From the 15-20 of January 2006, Civil Society Organisations and Government ministries from Ghana and Burkina Faso, (Oxfam GB, ISODEC, GAWU, PFAG, MAPRONET, Producer Organisations from Ghana and Oxfam Intermon

CPF, ORCADE, and Producer Organisations from Burkina Faso, the Ministries of Trade, Interior, Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration from Ghana and Burkina Faso) met in Ouagadougou under the sponsorship of Oxfam GB to deliberate upon the opportunities and challenges posed to ECOWAS states in their efforts at Regional Integration and on the on-going negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), the Common External Tariff (CET) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

We support the right of our countries and ECOWAS to undertake autonomously determined policies informed by the domestic developmental needs of our countries in the short and long term and to fulfil the social and human rights and livelihood needs of our people. We reject any attempts to undermine policy sovereignty of our countries. In furtherance of this, we state the following:

ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS

On EPAs, we support the position of the Africa Ministers of Trade in Cairo in relation to the EPA negotiations. In this regard, we recommend that:

The current EPA negotiations respect the understanding and provisions in the Cotonou agreement that they be a tool for development and poverty reduction. We call that emphasis be placed on making additional and easily accessible substantial resources available to fund the building of the supply capacities, infrastructure development, diversification, competitiveness and adjustment costs of the ACP states.

In the context of the WTO negotiations, we support the demand for the amendment of Article XXIV of the GATT to remove the reciprocity requirements in trade agreements between developed and developing countries, and hence between the ACP/ECOWAS states and the EU on the EPAs. Negotiations on the market access aspect of the EPAs should only be concluded after amendment of this article.

Issues on Investment, competition policy and transparency in Government Procurement should be dropped from the EPA negotiations and should continue to remain out of the WTO Doha Work Programme because they have the tendency to undermine the use of government purchases as an important tool of development.

ECOWAS should delay the start of negotiations of the EPAs until such time that comprehensive impact assessments of the various countries are submitted and factored into the ECOWAS negotiation position. The sub-region should also harmonise the extent of progress with the other ACP regional groupings as recommended by the AU.

ECOWAS as the regional negotiating body of the EPA should be strengthened technically and the capacities of the negotiators improved

Given the likely negative impact of the European Union Common Agricultural Policy and agricultural subsidies on agricultural trade between the EU and the ACP, it is strongly recommended that this issue be tackled appropriately within the EPAs so as to eliminate all forms of distortions in agricultural trade with the EU

It is recognized that tariff reduction on industrial goods could undermine the industrial development of ECOWAS, as it will remove tariff policy as an important tool of development. This particular issue should be taken a closer look at to ensure that the region’s attempt at industrial development is not stifled

Given the importance of the services sector for the socio-economic development of our countries and the direct implications it has for bridging the inequality gap, it is observed that further services liberalisation has the tendency to jeopardize this very development goal. Negotiations on the services sector should take full account of all these likely outcomes while pushing for agreements on services provided for by natural persons as that happens to be the only sector ECOWAS can compete.

 

REGIONAL INTEGRATION

 

  1. On Regional Integration within the ECOWAS region, it was observed that the Francophone–Anglophone language barrier greatly compromises and undermines trade and integration. It is proposed that ECOWAS adopts a policy making the learning of French and English languages compulsory in all Member States at least up to the secondary school level

We call on ECOWAS and Member Countries to fast track the implementation of the ECOWAS protocols to promote regional integration. Member Countries should put mechanisms in place to monitor the extent of implementation of these protocols. We further call on ECOWAS members to cooperate in this direction.

Youth development, employment and gender issues should be mainstreamed and accorded high level of attention in the regional integration process.

We also propose that the ECOWAS integration scheme be focused and should reflect the initiatives and true aspiration of the region in this direction. On the basis of this, we also suggest that all programmes and project initiatives be harmonised into realising the ECOWAS development agenda.

In all ECOWAS negotiations, the issues of technology transfer and technical assistance should be strongly embedded as that has the capacity to promote industrial development.

In spite of the commitments undertaken by countries to limit physical barriers to the free movement of persons and goods across borders of Member Countries, it appears that there has been very little done practically to eliminate these barriers. Traders still undergo a lot of harassment at the borders. We recommend that these road barriers be reduced to the barest minimum.

To ensure compliance of ECOWAS protocols on free movement of persons and goods, there should be increased sensitisation for all security players as well as the general public. This will ensure that these protocols are complied with

The poor state of regional infrastructure (rail, road, sea, air transport, telecommunication energy etc) acts as a major hindrance to trade and regional integration. It is recommended that the sector be given utmost attention.

Vigorous attempts should be made to promote cultural integration as part of the integration process. ECOWAS should also endeavour to stop the budding conflicts in certain parts of the sub-region. To this end, ECOWAS should endeavour to transform the moratorium on small arms in the region into a convention on the control of production, import and export of small arms.

Regional Agricultural Development, Food Sovereignty and Food Security should also be given the necessary attention and compliance. In this direction, it is recommended that ECOWAS should enforce and Member Countries should comply with the ECOWAS Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP), which proposes at least 10% GDP allocation to Agricultural Development and Agro Industrialisation.

 

THE COMMON EXTERNAL TARIFF

 The Negotiations on the Common External Tariff should take due cognisance of the concerns raised by member countries vis-à-vis customs revenue, employment and industrial protection and as much as possible, factor all these concerns in the CET that will be adopted. There should be the possibility for adjustment to reflect the development needs of member countries.

We thank the Governments of Ghana and Burkina Faso and all partners for making this collaboration worthwhile

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso 20 th January 2006

 

Participants/ Partners

Oxfam GB

Intermon Oxfam

MAPRONET Ghana

CPF Burkina

ISODEC Ghana

ORCADE Burkina

GAWU of Ghana TUC

Producer Organisations of Cotton, Shea Butter, and Rice from Ghana and Burkina Faso

Ministry of Trade and PSI – Ghana and Burkina Faso

Ministry of Regional Integration and NEPAD – Ghana

Ministry of Interior – Ghana

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Co-operation – Burkina