Trade unions from Africa and Europe have followed with grave concern the negotiation and conclusion of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the EU and regional groupings in Africa.
The ITUC-Africa and the ETUC have called for in-depth changes to the content and guiding principles of current EPAs to ensure they promote economic growth and sustainable development, guarantee respect for workers’ rights and universal access to public services and contribute to the full achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Workers’ representatives believe that the governments of the EU and African countries have not sufficiently involved the trade unions in the EPA negotiations through a process of effective and structured social dialogue.
" the EPAs currently under negotiation and those that have been signed pose significant risks to sustainable development, stable employment, labor standards and public services as well as democracy in African countries” they declared.
Read the full statement below
Joint ITUC-Africa/ETUC/ITUC Statement
on the EU Economic Partnership Agreements with Central Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa, the East African Community, the Southern African Development Community, and West Africa,
and the EU-Africa trade relations
26th October 2018
Trade unions from Africa and Europe have followed with grave concern the negotiation and conclusion of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the EU and regional groupings in Africa.
The ITUC-Africa and the ETUC have called for in-depth changes to the content and guiding principles of current EPAs to ensure they promote economic growth and sustainable development, guarantee respect for workers’ rights and universal access to public services and contribute to the full achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
We are concerned that trade unions have not been adequately involved in EPA negotiations by governments in the EU or Africa through a process of effective and structured social dialogue. Therefore, the EPAs currently under negotiation and those that have been signed pose significant risks to sustainable development, stable employment, labour standards and public services as well as democracy in African countries.
In particular, we share the following concerns relating to sustainable development and industrialisation:
We also note with concern the following issues relating to the EPAs labour commitments:
In procedural and design matters, we are worried about the following facts:
Due to these concerns, among others, the current EPA negotiations, the signed EPAs in their current form and interim EPAs with African regions do not have our support.
We ask for the EU and African groupings to stop the negotiations, withdraw from and reform signed agreements according to the principles below. The EU should ensure African countries that withdraw from EPA agreements do not lose preferential access to EU markets. African countries must continue to have preferential access to EU markets via Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) schemes, including those that have reached middle-income status.
Progressive principles for trade relations between EU and Africa
Trade unions consider free but fair trade to be of great importance for economic growth and sustainable development. Trade, when taking into account asymmetries, can contribute to a fairer, inclusive and socially just global trading system. In this respect, we support the idea of reconciling trade policy and development cooperation.
The EU’s trade policy can be an important instrument for building capacities to support sustainable growth, decent work, economic diversification, and integration in the regional/global economy. It should also provide benefits in terms of better economic and social infrastructure, require good governance and respect for the rule of law and human and labour rights, as well as respect for international environmental agreements and the Paris Agreement goals.
In this regard, the EU’s GSP schemes and potentially other trade policy instruments should contribute to building a just and prosperous economic relationship between the EU and the least-developed countries, a relationship in which exploiting workers and looting the environment are no longer accepted means of international competition. We expect a stronger link between preferential access and the respect of workers’ rights as defined in ILO standards.
The EU should extend solidarity to African countries, promote cooperation, rather than competition, and with a reformed trade policy assist in achieving the Agenda 2030 goals and in shaping globalisation in an economically equitable, socially and environmentally responsible way.
We call for governments to involve trade unions in social dialogue and negotiations to change course and pursue a progressive trade arrangement between Europe and Africa that takes into account the asymmetries in economic relations and market size.
We ask for the EU and African groupings to develop a new mandate for negotiations. This should follow the principles listed below:
We commit to continue advocating for a mutually beneficial partnership between Europe and Africa, one that takes into account historical experiences, promotes fair trade based on solidarity and advances respect for labour rights and creates decent jobs in Africa and Europe. We commit our organisations and national trade union centres to improve their cooperation and joint mobilisation with the aim to achieve these objectives and change the EPAs towards a more progressive and fair model.
The ITUC, the ITUC-Africa and the ETUC are the most representative trade union organizations worldwide, in Africa and in Europe.
For more information on previous joint work done together by African and European unions on this, please see:
• https://www.ituc-africa.org/IMG/pdf/statement_epas.pdf,
• the Joint ETUC-ITUC submission on ACP-EU Partnership Agreement: https://www.etuc.org/en/document/joint-etuc-ituc-submission-acp-eu-partnership-agreement
• A letter to MEPs: https://actsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/itucaf-ituc-etuc_letter_to_meps-docx.pdf
• the ETUC Resolution on a EU progressive trade and investment policy https://www.etuc.org/documents/etuc-resolution-eu-progressive-trade-and-investment-policy-adopted-executive-committee#.WuNDHaQvxD4