AFRICA TRADE
NETWORK
UNCTAD XII PANEL
DISCUSSION ON
'WHY THE EPAs ARE
AGAINST DEVELOPMENT'
Organized by the Africa Trade Network (ATN) in
collaboration with Stop EPA Advocacy & Campaign Partners
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Date and Venue: 09.30am-12.30pm,
Tuesday 22nd April 2008 at the 'NGO Hall', Ghana
International Conference Centre, Accra.
Background: In December 2007 35 ACP countries, including
19 African countries, initialed so-called 'Interim Economic
Partnership Agreements' (IEPAs) with the European Commission,
as a stepping stone towards comprehensive EPAs to be
completed in 2008. The Caribbean Region has already concluded
such a full EPA with the EU. As is widely acknowledged, the
EPAs will radically affect ACP-EU trade and economic
relations and have profound negative impacts on ACP national
and regional economies. Further, as a potential model for
North-South relations, the EPAs have implications far beyond
the regions and peoples directly concerned. Africa will
experience the most concentrated and far-reaching impacts of
the EPAs, and therefore has perhaps the strongest imperative
for interrogating and resisting the EPAs.
UNCTAD XII, taking place in Africa, offers the
opportunity: i) To consolidate the voices of concern and
dissent - official-cum-civil society- around the 'actually-
existing EPAs' as an effective pole of influence and to
harmonize their interactions, mutual support and
collaboration in intervening in EPA processes; ii) To root
this consolidation in a practical frame of reference of
strategic imperatives, parameters and 'red lines' in the EPAs
and, iii). To mainstream critiques against EPAs in richer and
more comprehensive linkages with progressive initiatives of,
and within, developing countries in the wider milieu of
Development and Trade.
Moderator: Gyekye Tanoh, Third World Network Africa/
ATN
Speakers:
Cheikh Tidiane Dieye, ENDA Tiers Monde, Senegal/ATN
Emily Jones, Oxfam GB
Hon Deputy Minister of Trade & Industry, Republic of
South Africa
Representative of the Ministry of Economics, Brazil
Hon Minister for Commerce, Republic of Senegal (tbc)
Contact: ATN Secretariat, email: politicaleconomy@twnafrica.org
a> ; Christabel Phiri: +233 246 935127