By JAMES MUYANWA in  Brussels, BELGIUM –
THE Zambian Government will not blindly follow other African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries into signing the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).

. Sampa

Commerce, Trade and Industry Deputy Minister, Miles Sampa said here that Zambia would only sign the EPAs after satisfying itself that the people of Zambia would fully benefit from the agreements.
Mr Sampa, who is leading a high-powered Zambian delegation to the 101st session of the ACP Council of Ministers and the 40th session of the ACP-European Union Council of ministers, said this in an interview here.
He said that the current Government wanted to first consider the benefits which would accrue to the Zambians and the local industries before signing any agreements with cooperating partners.
Mr Sampa said consequently it had asked for more time, to fully study the consequences of the agreements and quantify them before making a decision whether to do so or not.
“We will not blindly follow others into signing these agreements. Even if we remain the only country which will have not signed, for as long as we do not quantify what our people will benefit, we will not sign the EPAs.
“This Government, the Edgar Chagwa Lungu-led Government will not mortgage the country. It will do that which benefits our people,” he said.
This, he said, was because the Government was elected to safeguard the interests of the citizens.
During the ACP council of ministers meeting, various ministers representing the seven regions of ACP presented the state of affairs’ reports on the EPAs.
Generally, most of the member countries have signed the EPAs but the Eastern and Southern African region for which Zambia is a coordinator, has not done so yet.
Mr Sampa said that the Zambian Government wanted a win-win situation between the EU and the ACP member countries in terms of the benefits from the EPAs.
Both parties should fully benefit from the agreements.
He said it was for that reason that the Government was advancing the issues of value addition and revival of the manufacturing sector so that once the EU market was fully opened under the EPAs Zambians would actively participate.
He said that in the sector where there were already some value addition activities, they needed to now look at the issues of repackaging of the products.
One such example is the sugar production sector where the country was already exporting the commodity to the EU market, under the current quota system.
“We need to see our products in Brussels repackaged in our companies’ brand,” he said.
The proponents of the EPAs argue that the agreements will lead to a situation where the markets for the ACP countries would be flooded with the EU products.
This is especially so in that the EU countries subsidise production of most of their products rendering the ACP products which are grown or manufactured at great cost uncompetitive.
Meanwhile the ACP-EU Council of ministers meeting got underway here at Justus Lipsius Building.