How do the problems presented by the EPAs affect poorer countries in Africa?
If you look at the sections which the smaller counties of Africa are being forced to sign with the EU, you find that some of these include issues that are already precluded by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In the WTO it is agreed that issues like competition policy, investment policy and government procurement – the so-called Singapore issues – are outside the WTO remit. But countries in Africa are being forced by the EU to negotiate these as part of the EPA. The South Centre has carried out extensive analyses and found that including these issues will more or less erode any policy space on the part of the countries that sign the EPAs. For example: government procurement deals with goods and services that the government provides as part of its obligations to the people. The government issues tenders for equipment in hospitals or schools and for services like refuge collection.
