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.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
RSS