27th September 2007 marks the fifth anniversary of the start of negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) – Europe's new trade deals with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP).Traidcraft is part of a network of thousands of campaigners, workers, farmers and activists who will take part in coordinated events to protest against these unfair deals.
Campaigners will march in Port-au-Prince, Dakar, Nairobi, and Bamako. In Barbados activists will attend a Stop EPAs concert, and meetings with Government officials will be held simultaneously in Ouagadougou, Copenhagen, Kampala, London and many other cities. And In Brussels campaigners will build a wall of protest outside the EU trade office.
No to unfair trade deals
We're calling on our national Parliaments and Governments, as well as EU institutions to abandon the draft EPAs that are now on the table. We believe that the free trade deals along the lines proposed by the European Union would destroy thousands of livelihoods and undermine future development.
The protesters will also demand that the European Commission (EC) stops threatening to raise import tariffs on ACP products and cut development aid to the ACP countries if they do not sign EPAs by the end of the year. They will insist that the EC ensures that ACP exports to the EU are not disrupted, and allow time and space for alternative deals to be considered.
In ACP countries' Governments will be urged to resist EU bullying tactics and to make sure that farmers', workers' and consumers' interests are defended.
Marc Maes of the Brussels-based NGO coalition 11.11.11 said: "The EU has put forward draft texts in all 6 EPAs regions. These texts, which are almost identical, have little development content but instead reflect the EU’s interests and trade approaches. They fail to fulfill the development goals the EPAs were supposed to meet."
Tetteh Hormeku of the Third World Network Africa, based in Accra, Ghana said: "The EU's use of pressure on ACP countries is not acceptable, nor does it make sense: imposed EPAs will definitely not reflect ACP interests and concerns."
