Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-06-13-Speech-4-007-000"
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"en.20130613.2.4-007-000"2
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"Mr President, this is a stepping-stone EPA, and I emphasise that at the beginning; it is not the end product.
There are numerous NGOs which have raised this issue with me. I want to emphasise that I do not think it is a reason for rejecting the EPA, but it is a reason for us to look at our relationship with Cameroon under the Cotonou provisions, which concern human rights and good governance, among other issues. So we should examine that aspect of our relationship with Cameroon, but at the moment I am recommending that the House approves this interim stepping-stone EPA.
We as a Parliament, along with the Commission, have set three criteria on what we expect out of EPAs. We want them, firstly, to be WTO-compatible, secondly, to be development-friendly and, thirdly, to encourage regional integration. In isolation, this stepping-stone EPA perhaps gets one-and-a-half out of three in terms of meeting these three objectives.
Cameroon does become WTO-compatible by signing up for the stepping-stone EPA, and that is vital for them in terms of continued market access after the amendment to the Market Access Regulation, because their preferences will end on 1 October 2014 if no action is taken. I welcome the fact that in relation to the first objective, we have ensured that Cameroon becomes WTO-compatible.
On the second objective, Cameroon is not a least developed country (LDC), but 40% of its population remain below the poverty line and the country remains food-insecure. This stepping-stone EPA does not do a lot to address that concern, but it reinforces our Cotonou attempts to improve good governance in the country, to improve the rule of law and, generally, to enhance development. So in terms of development, I give it half a mark.
But where this EPA fails is in that Parliament has consistently supported a notion that EPAs should encourage regional integration. Clearly the stepping-stone EPA does not do this because Cameroon is the only country in the region signing up for it, with seven countries deciding to stay out.
This is not – and I want to emphasise this – Cameroon’s fault, because the other Central African countries are LDCs, and see little incentive at the moment for signing up for an EPA. They already benefit from duty-free and quota-free access to the European Union market and do not see the EPA delivering any additional benefits.
In my view that is a misjudgement. It is a misjudgement on both sides though. We in the European Union have not as yet sold the potential benefits of EPAs properly. We have not, for example, explained the benefit of common rules of origin across the region in terms of regional integration, nor have we listed any additional benefits beyond liberalisation.
We have not really pushed the Aid for Trade agenda and we have not talked about how EPAs could be used to develop some of the existing Cotonou policies. So there is much work to be done if we wish to get the other seven regions to sign up; but because it is not a Cameroon problem, I am recommending to the House today that we accept this stepping-stone EPA.
I want to raise one additional issue, which strictly speaking is not an EPA issue, but is a Cotonou issue. In the context of events in Cameroon I cannot ignore this, and that is the position of LGBT people in Cameroon. I am very worried that the recent discriminatory legislation that Cameroon has passed, particularly Article 347 of their Penal Code – which punishes sexual relations between persons of the same sex with a sentence of up to five years in prison – is one of the harshest regimes now in Africa in relation to persecution of LGBT people."@en1
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