Namibia, as an individual country out of the Southern Africa Customs Union, is “not an equal partner” to the European Union, a senior official said this week commenting on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). “We are selling ourselves too cheap,” Calle Schlettwein, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance said with reference to the on-going EPA negotiations with the EU.

Schlettwein also said the EPA with the EU poses “serious risks” to Namibia. He said for Namibia the only perceived benefit that comes with being a party to SACU and SADC when negotiating agreements such as EPA is that “our voice becomes thicker”. Schlettwein said Namibia can attract investments from within SACU and itself.
SACU split last year when Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland opted to sign the interim EPA agreement while Namibia and South Africa objected to the signing. Namibia signed at the last minute on the understanding that a re-negotiation would take place to address its concerns. South Africa and Namibia have problems with the text on liberalisation provisions.
Tswelopele Moremi, executive secretary for the SACU secretariat, said “clearly the EPA is facing problems. But over the last few days a better format on tackling the challenges posed in the EPA has been found.”
EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson met with Southern African Development Community (SADC) trade ministers in Botswana this week where discussions over the EPA re-negotiation took place.
“SADC members are happy to let the existing interim agreement stand. But Namibia, which has initialled the agreement and South Africa, which has not, want their concerns to be addressed. The other SADC members said they want to share their concerns with South Africa and Namibia and, if they collectively come to me with their concerns, I will be flexible. But I will only consider any adjustments in the context of the next stage of the negotiations between now until the end of the year,” Mandelson said this week.
Mandelson repeated that he was not prepared to renegotiate the whole deal. “They have got major advantages. To threaten disruption of their trade, to put at risk what has been agreed, would be unthinkable,” he said.
Mandelson has earlier said service liberalisation would create conditions for investments that are predictable and stable for EU investors.
“To exclude services and investment and those rules is tantamount to saying the development of these countries would be slower and more haphazard,” he said.
South Africa continues with its refusal to sign the agreement. Mandelson said South Africa has given its word that it would not stand in the way of other SADC members, which initialled an interim EPA at the end of last year. “I assume the comment was sincerely made and that the other countries will not be obstructed,” said Mandelson.
South Africa' refusal to sign the EPA agreement is seen as a threat to the SACU body, especially in the light of the comment made by South African Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, that the EU is “using the EPAs to regain ground they think they have lost in their quest for hegemony in Africa”.
Mandelson said his meeting with the ministers was fruitful.
“The atmosphere was better and there is a real resolve among all the members to press ahead with the negotiation of the EPA. I hope Namibia and South Africa will come on board and that we can re-engage them as we go forward. If they are prepared to negotiate in good faith, the others would welcome them on board,” he said.