The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has kicked against the proposed European Union-ECOWAS Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) .
MAN described the EPA as a deadly bait, whose coming would result in the collapse of manufacturing firms in Nigeria and West Africa.
Speaking at a forum on EPA at MAN House, Ikeja, Lagos, its President, Kola Jamodu said EPA is an instrument to perpetuate the hold of EU on economies of developing countries.
He said EPA would not benefit West Africa because the economic performance of ECOWAS is too low for positive impact on the population’s socio-economic conditions.
Jamodu said the key problems identified as limiting growth in the industrial sector in most ECOWAS countries, particularly Nigeria, included poor and high cost of infrastructure, particularly electricity, transportation and telecommunication, among others.
“In summary, these constraints have combined to deprive the sub-region of the catalytic benefits usually offered by the industrial sector, particularly manufacturing as the engine to stimulate economic development similar to results in other regions such as Latin America, Asia and Far East where export-oriented manufacturing has transformed the countries.
“It is against the background of ECOWAS’ weak industrial base and the myriad of problems and constraints affecting the industrial sector that the envisaged full liberalisation of trade between ECOWAS and the European Union under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) will pose a lot of threats and challenges to the sub-region, particularly the manufacturing sector,” Jamodu said.
Chairman, Economic Policy Committee, MAN, Mr Gbade Giwa, said in the more than 30 years of economic and trade relations with EU, 12 out of the 16 countries in West Africa remain classified as Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
“The implication of this trend is that the goals of EPA with regard to ‘robust’ export opportunities in EU market for ECOWAS products is very unrealistic, especially in the face of stiff and unrestrained competition expected from new entrants into the membership of EU and other trading blocs with which EU is engaging in similar trade protocols,” Giwa said.
“However, in pursuing this initiative, caution should be adopted so as not to destroy our national economies and our shared vision concerning regional integration. The frenzy of globalization should not be allowed to deepen the wedge which had widened the lack of investment and trade cooperation among countries in our sub-region in the past,” Giwa said.
