Don cautions FG over decision on Economic partnership Agreement...

A professor of Economics at the University of Ibadan and chairman, Centre for Trade and Development initiatives, CTDi, Ademola Oyejide, has called on the federal government to rethink its decision on the Economic Partnership Agreement, EPA, saying that it will have negative implications for the economy.
Oyejide, who spoke at the 43rd Annual General Meeting of Apapa branch of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, said that all the reasons being raised by the federal government for backing out of the agreement were contained in the pact right from 1996 when the agreement was originally signed. He said that going ahead with the decision might cost Nigeria its membership of ECOWAS state, of which she is the main beneficiary “The Economic Partnership agreement which was negotiated between the European Union and its member state on one hand and ECOWAS and its member states, including Mauritius on the other hand, has been decisively approved by the authority of heads of states and government of the ECOWAS. In effect, it is a done deal,” he said. “We do have a choice as a country, we can say we don’t like this, therefore we get out of ECOWAS. Now, this is something our fathers created; do we really want to be local chairman or do we want to be chairman of a branch that says we get out of ECOWA. I don’t think so. I know that the President of this country said it will not happen during his tenure. “We do have that problem; so, that is the thing now. It not just something economical, it is also political. When we are able to be honest with ourselves, we will begin to ask the question, of what benefit is ECOWAS to Nigeria. Nigeria is the country that benefits most from ECOWAS. “So, if we have decided that this is the end of ECOWAS, we are going to face the same issue several months from now, when we start negotiating the continental trade tariff because African Union has decided that our president was present when the agreement was signed and they agreed that all the countries in Africa should have common external tariff starting with ECOWAS CET and EPA,” he added. He observed that despite the federal government’s argument of loss of revenue and the risk of flooding the country with goods from Europe with its attendant negative effect on local manufacturing, it would amount to over protection of ‘infant industries’ which have no metric of growth measurement. “There are two issues to bear in mind. This liberalization will impose a cost on Nigeria’s manufacturing industries within the Nigerian market as well as possibly in the markets of other West African countries. “At the same time, however, Nigeria’s manufacturing industries stand to gain from the full access to the EU markets for their exports. In addition, Nigeria’s manufacturing industries can benefit from the financial and technical support that the EU offers....post by expdonaloaded