The EU is insisting that some of Africa's poorest countries accept liberalization of services, investment and competition policy as the price of better access to the world's richest market, it emerged on Wednesday.
Under proposals being discussed in Brussels on Thursday, the European Commission will say that unless the developing nations accept changes in sectors deemed too sensitive to be included in global trade talks, they will be denied better market access for their exports.
Aid agencies said a document outlining the proposed tough negotiating stance over an economic partnership area (EPA) with South Africa and seven other countries in sub-Saharan Africa amounted to "bribery."
Both Brussels and Washington have started to push for bilateral and regional deals since the stalling of the Doha round of trade liberalization talks, normally insisting on far more stringent conditions than proved possible in the multilateral WTO talks.
Matt Griffith, of the aid agency CAFOD, called on the UK -- which has said poor countries should decide for themselves whether to negotiate in sectors such as investment and competition policy -- to "stamp" on the proposals.
A commission paper revealed Brussels will impose tougher conditions on South Africa than the seven other African states -- Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho and Angola -- because it has a more competitive economy and poses a more serious threat to Europe's interests.
Offering the same terms to South Africa would be "detrimental to some of the EC's most sensitive sectors," it said.
"This is mercantilism par excellence. The commission is seeking to use desperately needed market access into the European Union to bribe African countries into accepting trade rules that would be against their interests, and which African countries have already explicitly rejected," Griffith said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS