As the demand for mineral resources and fossil fuels continues to grow worldwide, the impact of mining will be an increasingly important concern. In Africa, local communities have been exposed to the detrimental effects of contamination arising from mining and its effects on public health, agriculture and the environment. The legacy of mining has left thousands of sites in Africa contaminated by mining and associated mine dumps such as tailings and slag material. The number of studies focused on the impacts of mining on the environment and human health in Africa have increased during the last decade. This paper reports on a project designed to correlate and integrate the results of multidisciplinary studies carried out in contaminated sites and areas using the best contemporary procedures for statistical analysis, management and compilation of the geochemical data; to strengthen the capacity of African institutions in environmental geochemistry, to raise public awareness of the impacts of mining on the environment and human health and to facilitate cooperation among geoscientists and medical scientists.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
The aim of this paper is to enable African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to understand how trade policy related to the environment has been introduced in economic partnership agreements (EPAs), and how those policies might impact sustainable development in ACP countries. Some of the issues for ACPs examined by the paper include a discussion of the difficulties of managing and coordinating the various regional groupings in the negotiations, the potential complementarities and conflicts with other existing international agreements (multilateral environmental agreements and WTO agreements), the challenges related to the implementation of new environmental standards, and the settlement of disputes as well as the strengthening of environmental capacities. The main conclusion of the paper is that the incorporation of environmental provisions within the EPAs may present some benefits to ACP countries. However, ACP countries will need appropriate packages of technical assistance, capacity building, and environmental cooperation to meet this new environmental agenda in their trade agreements.
Following the signing of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries to negotiate an economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the European Union, the Botswana government has been warned to exercise its rights in making sure that threats facing the private sector are taken into consideration. Dr Howard Sigwele, executive director of Delta Diaries, Botswana's first jointly owned citizen milk producing company, indicated that although there were benefits in the agreement in trying to enhance private sector participation in foreign markets, there were possible threats such as unregulated entry of goods and subsidised European Union imports into Botswana, undermining the performance of local business and lead to company closure. He warned about the possible entry of goods of inferior standard and possible importation of diseases and pests unless measures are taken to prevent this.
The Southern African civil society organisations campaigning on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), met in Gaborone, Botswana, from 20-22 November 2007, to review the EPA negotiations. This here forms a statement compiled by these organisations to re-affirm their opposition to these self-serving Free Trade Agreements that the European Union (EU) seeks to impose on African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. The respective civil society organisations condemned the interim arrangement put in place to address market access to the EU at the expiration of the Cotonou preferences on December 31, and describe the treacherous framework as designed for bulldozing Africa into signing a comprehensive EPA/FTA.
This newsletter looks at the current state of play on EPAs and the global campaign for fair trade.
Ministers from the Eastern and Southern Africa region (ESA) and Commissioners from the European Union met in Brussels on 12 November 2007. The ESA delegation was led by Honourable Felix Mutati, Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry of Zambia, and included Ministers from countries in the region. The main purpose of the meeting was to take stock of EPA negotiations in view of impending expiry of the trade regime set out in the Cotonou Partnership Agreement and to provide political guidance for the next steps in the negotiation process. The Parties reaffirmed their commitment to conclude a comprehensive EPA as tool for sustainable development and the promotion of regional integration.
A brief look at each of the six negotiation regions gives a more detailed picture of the current state of play on the EPA negotiations. While all parties remain committed to concluding comprehensive EPAs, as confirmed in the joint review endorsed in May 2007, progress in the negotiations has been slower than expected. By October 2007, it became apparent that EPAs would not be concluded by the target date of 31 December 2007, set by the expiry of the WTO waiver covering the current preferential trade regime of Cotonou. In reaction to this, the European Commission issued a communication on 23 October 2007, which outlines a pragmatic approach to safeguard preferential market access for non-LDC countries from 1 January 20081. The communication aims at concluding WTO-compatible goods market access arrangements to be in order to extend the negotiation time towards complete EPAs while avoiding adisruption in trade. In line with this approach, a number of interim agreements were concluded over the last weeks of 2007 between the EU and ACP regions, subregions and individual countries. Trade in goods is the only key area that needs to be covered by an agreement to comply with WTO rules. Other areas, on which agreement has been found, are included in most interim agreements. The interim agreements contain rendezvous clauses to continue negotiations in 2008 towards full EPAs. A brief look in this report at each of the six negotiation regions gives a more detailed picture of the current state of play on the EPA negotiations.
The Deputy Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Erastus Jarnalese Onkundi Mwencha, says the structure of the economic partnership agreement between the continent and the European Union is not to Africa’s advantage, arguing instead for regional integration. He explained that regional integration will help develop larger markets, foster greater competition and improve the policy stance in many areas of the development agenda. Progress towards increased intra-African trade as a major objective of an economic integration agenda has been less than impressive, he added. The structures of African economies have been intended to produce raw materials for export. Mwencha argues that African countries need to add value to their raw materials and use the rest of the continent as a base for industrialisation and trade.
The Deputy Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Erastus Jarnalese Onkundi Mwencha, says the structure of the economic partnership agreement between the continent and the European Union is not to Africa’s advantage, arguing instead for regional integration. He explained that regional integration will help develop larger markets, foster greater competition and improve the policy stance in many areas of the development agenda. Progress towards increased intra-African trade as a major objective of an economic integration agenda has been less than impressive, he added. The structures of African economies have been intended to produce raw materials for export. Mwencha argues that African countries need to add value to their raw materials and use the rest of the continent as a base for industrialisation and trade.
The author of this article believes that trade in services will play a more prominent role in the economic development of the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) countries in the coming years. He calls for special attention to be given to strengthening capacity and improving competitiveness in African countries and to providing appropriate flexibility in the sequencing of liberalisation commitments. Services account for between 30% and 60% of the GDP in African countries. Countries with a more developed services sector have tended to adopt an offensive stance in trade negotiations on services, such as with the EU, while the majority of states have favoured a defensive posture. This latter group argues that liberalisation of services trade should be preceded by capacity building to develop the necessary regulatory framework, given that this is lacking in many African countries. Trade liberalisation should not, in their view, be viewed as a magic wand that will inevitably lead to the development of their nascent services sector.