EU
says it has "no hidden agenda" in seeking
market for goods
AFP
ABUJA
Petroleumworld.com
07 02 06
A senior European commission official said here
Thursday there was no hidden agenda in a European
Union plan to develop regionally integrated markets
for its goods as of 2008.
The European Commission's deputy director general
for trade, Karl-Friedrich Falkenberg, was responding
questions from journalists about suggestions that
the EU initiative was really aimed at looking for
a dumping ground for European goods.
"There is no hidden agenda in terms of early
access for European goods," Falkenberg said.
The official held talks here with Nigerian and west
African regional bloc ECOWAS representatives to
assess an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) currently
being negotiated between the European Commission
and six regions in sub-saharan Africa, the Caribbean
and the Pacific (ACP).
The EPA seeks to govern trade arrangements and cooperation
in trade and economically related matters, focusing
on developing regional markets within the ACP states.
"We are not looking for having free access
on January 1, 2008, for European goods into ECOWAS....(and)...
we are not looking for that for other regions,"
Falkenberg said.
"We are looking for defining the period of
time over which reciprocity is going to come in.
That reciprocity will have to take into account
the spate of development of industries, agriculture,
services here in the region," he added.
"So I think there is no hidden agenda behind
this. It is a jointly set target date, we are jointly
working towards it...we will like to have in Africa,
the Caribbean and Pacific stronger trading partners."
"If EPA was simply about liberalising everything
on January 1, 2008, if I were in your shoes, I will
be sceptical also," the EU official continued.
"The point is that this is not what EPA is
all about. This is not what we are negotiating."
Nigeria's presidential economic adviser, Osita Ogbu,
said the negotiation was for free trade involving
some degree of tariff reductions, fair protection,
culminating in an agreement that should be completed
by January 2008.
AFP 06 22 06
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