Dear Editors and Newspersons,
As you may already be aware, African Trade Ministers are meeting in Accra, Ghana to discuss the AGOA Partnership of Trade and Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) that Africa is supposed to have conceded to by the end of the year among other Issues.
It is the general consensus of many actors in Africa, including the church and the civil society, that the benefits that are proclaimed will result from the EPA agreements are not real. The pressure is mounting on our trade ministers to Sign the EPAs even when the general populace is not informed about their existence and the impacts associated with them. At the same time our industries and farmers are not in any position that would make them compete with the European producers.
Against that background, the General Secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches, Rev. Dr. Mvume Dandala, has seen it fit to make a wake up call to the African Trade Ministers, who are meeting in Ghana, to seize the moment and agree not to be pushed into signing EPAs whose deadline is December 2007 before its impacts assessment is conducted among other concerns and a general agreement arrived at amicably.
Thank you,
Solomon Gichira, Programmes/Research Officer All Africa Conference of Churches P. O. Box 14205, 00800 Nairobi-Kenya Tel: +254-20- 4441483/4441338/9 Fax: +254-20- 4443241, 4445835