Parliament calls on president to revise EPA with EU

Parliament seeks to ratify the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) signed in 2009 with the EU, targeting to gradually remove (over a period of 15 years) the customs barriers between the two entities in order to create a free-trade zone.

On July 9, 2014, parliament adopted a bill endorsed by the Minister of Economy authorising the Head of State to ratify the EPA concluded in 2009 between the State and the European Union. "The text was submitted to members of parliament on July 8, 2014 for scrutiny just two days before the close of the parliamentary session.” This left the national representatives little time to debate on this sensitive issue,” complained the Citizens’ Association for the Defence of Collective Interests (ACDIC) in a release.

The ACDIC’s fears were founded in the light of the information gathered on the holding of the full session for the adoption of the bill on July 9, 2014 by the Cameroonian National Assembly.

According to the governmental daily, at the opening of the session, the National Assembly’s Chairman, Cavaye Yéguié Djibril, carefully informed his fellow representatives that he would apply the provisions of the Article 39 of the internal regulations of the Chamber if there are many speakers.

Indeed, the internal rules of the National Assembly simply sought to shorten the debates, since they requested the Chairman of the House to extend the speaking time for each representative from 10 to 30 minutes in total per parliamentary group. It was by way of this abridged debate that the bill presented by the government was adopted by the parliament, thus consecrating Cameroon’s procession towards the EPAs, to the detriment of a regional approach in the CEMAC zone that all were confident in a few months before.

Civil society, members of the political opposition, leading experts and members of the business community opposed the signing of the EPAs from the start of negotiations accusing the European Union of wanting to reduce the ACP countries to mere trading posts whose fledgling industries will be destroyed with the signing of the EPAs.

The opening-up of borders outlined in these agreements, at the industrial level, is comparable to an outrageously uneven match between “a boxer who is free to move about and another who has his hands tied,” to quote the remark made by Protais Ayangma, president of ECAM, a business leader organisation in Cameroon.

In addition, “One should note that some members of EU governments have decried the dictatorial nature of the European negotiators,” said the ACDIC, which indicated that, “in several African regions, economic partnership agreement negotiations are blocked.”

The EU has been opting “interim agreements which could threaten the achievement of integration in various regions where there are already enormous difficulties in terms the free circulation of persons and goods.”