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In the unfolding economic partnership between European Union and the West African sub-region, there are concerns in the region that this relationship should not be lopsided, thus benefiting only the EU Ongoing negotiations between West Africa and the European Union (EU) to build a comprehensive trade partnership between the two regions have reached a critical stage. The negotiations are getting tougher, EU wants multi-lateral rules to be obeyed and West African nations have certain national and regional concerns. One major concern of stakeholders is that the West African sub-region is systematically being used in providing primary commodities for the developed economies of the world. There have been several meetings in the last one year. Some months ago, the European Union and West African countries agreed to finalise the regional agreement on trade in goods and development cooperation by October this year. The deadline has not been met and the new deadline is set for the first of next month. June this year when the leaders of the EU and West Africa met, they stated their commitment to build a lasting partnership between the two regions. The EU trade commissioner Catherine Ashton said, “The decision today has set us on the road to concluding a comprehensive trade partnership with the full West African region…I am confident we can settle the remaining issues and move forward.” Louis Michel, Commissioner for development and humanitarian aid of the EU said, “Our goal must remain to reach an agreement on a full EPA that brings development support and benefits for all countries in the region. This will support regional integration: regional markets that attract investment and sustain jobs and regional governance that can address problems which individual countries can no longer solve on their own. This is much needed during difficult times - such as the present financial crisis.” Mohammed Ibn Chambas, the president of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Soumaila Cissé president of Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest-Africaine (UEMOA), lead negotiators of the EPA and some ministers from West African nations reaffirmed this. The agreement is expected to cover trade in goods, some trade rules and development cooperation, and lay the foundations for a comprehensive agreement between the EU and West Africa. But there is still much difficulty in reaching an agreement. Concerns by West Africans include exposure of domestic products to increased competition from cheaper EU products into a West African country without tariffs, de-industrialisation of a country as a result of goods coming in freely, particularly for small and medium enterprises and resultant increase in job losses. Others include dumping effect of EU imports on domestic markets and loss of revenue as a result of removing tariffs. Some benefits of an EPA agreement have been identified by Nigeria’s ministry of commerce and industry. This includes increased growth of competitive industries, lower cost for imported equipment and machinery from the EU which would be beneficial for industrial growth particularly SMEs. The ministry also identifies prospects of greater opportunity for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by EU with resultant multiplier effect in development of networks of SME’s subcontractors within the region. The expectation is that the development component will assist in repositioning the private sector to be more competitive. Before now, as at 2008, EU-West Africa bilateral trade was worth €43.6 billion. More than half of this has been trade between the European Union and Nigeria. The EU mainly exports industrial goods especially machinery which includes electrical machinery and vehicles to the West African region. Apart from oil from Nigeria which accounts for 55 percent of West African exports, the region’s main exports to the EU are cocoa (11 percent), iron (8 percent) and rubber (6 percent). Two West African countries, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana had interim EPAs with the EU at the end of 2007. The interim EPA with Côte d’Ivoire was signed on 26 November 2008. The new regional EPA will replace these interim EPAs. West Africa has 16 countries with 13 being considered as Least Developed Countries (LDCs). They benefit from the “Everything but Arms” trade preferences of the EU. Nigeria, which has about half of the population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of West Africa decided not to sign an EPA, and shifted to the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), under which it benefits from zero duty on oil. Oil accounts for 95 percent of Nigeria’s total exports to the EU. But there is now a mandate to negotiate a new trade regime with the EU in line with current global trends. This new agreement is expected to be reciprocal, that is, removal of tariffs by the countries of the two regions for goods coming in from the regional partners. Achike Udenwa, Nigeria’s minister for commerce and industry, recently said, “The EPAs are aimed at redefining the trade regime between the EU and African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) countries by replacing the system being operated under Lome conventions.” He explained that the major difference between EPA and the previous agreement is that it is reciprocal and asymmetric, that is each side getting about the same benefits. He said this would mean that the EU and ACP countries will provide duty-free market access to each other’s export, with the EU opening up 100 percent of its market on signing while the ACP gradually open theirs. Some West Africans believe the whole talk of free trade, borderless region, tax harmonisation, job creation and achievement of the desired Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would be pointless if not backed up by a viable industrial base, which is the original vision of ECOWAS. Mohammed Darami, a leader in West African Common Industrial Policy (WACIP) recently noted that, “Confining West African countries to the production of primary commodities amounts to condemning them to remain locked in the commodity trap”. Darami also revealed that ECOWAS is currently weighing other options should the EU refuse to accept the protection of the West African markets after signing of the EPA. He said: “We are looking at South-South trade with India, Brazil and China...Once these conditions are not met, I don’t see us signing any EPA agreement. We have asked EU to make a commitment to support us to industrialise, add some value to our products...We want them to support the EPA development programme. I cannot foresee us signing any EPA except those conditions are met. West Africa is not negotiating for time. We are insisting on making sure that all the demands that will make our region industrialised are met. We cannot remain eternal primary producers”. Darami revealed that ECOWAS is asking for the protection of 30 per cent of its market. But the EU partners want more than 70 percent of the ECOWAS market. Nigeria’ minister of commerce and industry also recently stated Nigeria’s position. He said, “We have identified some products that we regard as sensitive and critical to the development of our economy and the welfare of our citizens which we have included in the regional lists of sensitive products and which development efforts would be focused. This is part of the region’s strategy to protect its market for as long as possible and to ensure that any initial negative impact of the EPA is successfully minimised.” Alfred Uwheraka, chief executive of Frijay Consult, a Nigerian agricultural processing firm said West Africans have left too much room for other regional bodies to take root in their daily lives. He said, “They came in with juicy packages laced with cheap but not necessarily superior quality products and services to match our low purchasing income. They offered us donations and loans to enable us meet our basic needs of food, housing, roads, rails, education etc but using their personnel, materials developed in their countries to re-colonise us economically.” Uwheraka said the consequence is declined faith in the goals set out in the ECOWAS treaty. He added that most affected are ECOWAS countries with oil and primary agricultural produce to sell as crude in exchange for imported products and services. He said, “While they refine our oil and farm products through manufacturing in their countries these are resold to us. A visit to markets and supermarkets in various countries in the sub-region you find more than 80 percent of finished products imported from outside the region whereas most of the base raw materials used to produce them come from Africa and developing economies particularly ECOWAS. Today they refer to good balance of payment between our countries (based on crude state) and theirs (based on finished products).” He pointed out that at a recent ECOWAS Business forum in BurkinaFaso and subsequent follow up in Nigeria and other countries, emphasis was laid on stepping up agricultural activities as the engine of food availability and industrialisation. Uwheraka said, “All the manufacturing activities depend on raw materials from agriculture such as cotton for textile, palm oil for refined oil , crude oil for petrol and its derivatives, wood for paper, wood for housing and rail slippers and solid minerals/iron ore for the tin, iron and steel industries(vehicles, plates, Trains etc).” He argued that wealth in the West African region could be improved by adding value to primary agricultural production. He said, “The lives of people in the region could be improved by converting raw agricultural produce into finished products for merchandising in markets and supermarkets within the sub-region and outside countries supermarkets through exports. He explained that this would provide more jobs for youths and employable people and thereby create wealth, create volume, quality/technological improvement in farming methods since income is guaranteed by providing longer shelf life to farm produce. Other stakeholders have also called on the Nigerian government to be very clear on its national objectives concerning the EPA. An Enlarged National Focal Point (ENFP) committee has been re-inaugurated by the minister for commerce and industry to bring recommendations on the issue of EPA. ENFP is an inter-institutional committee comprising key economic ministries, departments, agencies, members of the organised private sector, academics, professional bodies, legislators among others. The minister said the ENFP will be expected to break into these various committees so that Nigeria’s position on trade and trade-related issues would be established through active participation by members and based on bottom-up approach.