You can read his letter in full below. Traidcraft has issued the following response.
In summary:
The UK government fails to address the fundamental concerns with Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) that have been consistently raised by developing country governments, academics, unions and non-governmental organisations.
The UK government should recognise that EPAs as currently proposed will not help to end poverty and should call for an alternative.
In particular:
The ongoing EPA process threatens regional trade links that the UK government publicly supports. The EU is offering different market access to Less Developed Countries (LDCs) and non-LDCs. This means that countries in the same regional grouping would operate with different preferences, making regional integration impossible and pressing them to sign an EPA because there is no alternative.
Traidcraft recommends that the government grants temporary access to the ‘Everything But Arms’ scheme for the whole of Africa. This would take into account that most African regions are dominated by LDCs which would suffer from opening their markets reciprocally under an EPA. Similar preferences between the US and Africa have not been challenged under the WTO.
Traidcraft agrees with the stance of many developing countries that there must be no attempt to rush through a conclusion to the Doha Development Round, which has been rejected by them several times. Any WTO agreement must take into account different levels of, and strategies for, development and be subordinate to the principles contained in international human, labour and other rights-based conventions.
