New unfair European trade deal signed with African countries

The World Development Movement today expressed its huge disappointment that the European Union has proceeded with signing a trade deal with Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.

Vicky Cann, trade policy officer says: “Trade deals like this one between Europe and Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland open African markets up to European multinational companies before they are fully able to compete on equal terms. Such unfair deals threaten local jobs and labour standards. They also disrupt the regional trade in southern Africa, something to which the European Commission seems oblivious”.

South Africa, Angola and Namibia have all chosen not to sign this deal, as it currently stands, in a negotiation process that has been wracked with controversy. Namibia’s trade and industry minister Hage Geingob has said, "We might be small, but we are still a sovereign state. You cannot smoke cigars in boardrooms in Brussels and bulldoze us."

In a 2008 report which looked at the existing Europe-South Africa free trade deal signed in 1999, the World Development Movement documented the resulting reductions in tariffs on EU products which had led to an increase in imports from the EU and a negative impact on South Africa’s current account balance. The food processing, clothing and electronics industries were particularly noted as being affected by the surge in imports from Europe. As well as cuts in jobs, wages and employment conditions, the removal of tariffs made it more difficult for South Africa to develop value-adding industries, making the country more reliant on export of raw materials.

Such research suggests a very worrying pattern for the impacts of this new trade deal on Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.

ENDS

For more detail on the World Development Movement's findings on the impact of Europe's trade deal with South Africa, please see the Raw deal report

Kate Blagojevic
Press officer, World Development Movement
0207 820 4900/4913, 07711 875 345, Email: kate.blagojevic@wdm.org.uk