Civil society Position Paper on the EPAs
September 27, 2024 - Musa Ansumana Soko
by Globa Call to Action against Poverty - Sierra Leone (GCAP-SL)
We the Sierra Leonean civil society organisations having met and deliberated on the EPAs at the Miatta Conference Centre, Youyi building, Freetown, on the 27th September 2007, have noted the following:

That the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) countries, comprising 77 members are expected to sign up to the EPA by 31st December 2007. The EPAs which the European Union (EU) is trying to impose on ACP countries are in complete contrast with the objective and principle of the Lome Convention, which sought the provision of preferential access to European markets by ACP countries.

That the EU under the EPAs is seeking a very extensive and essentially reciprocal liberation of trade. The negotiations are one-sided and heavily skewed towards the pursuits of the interest of a few large companies and business federations in the EU. This agreement has the potential of improvising ACP countries of which Sierra Leone is a member. It is the widely held notion that globalization in all its forms leads to economic domination of poor and weak states like Sierra Leone by powerful nations.

That Civil Society groups in other countries like Nigeria have intensified their campaigns to lobby their leaders not to sign up to the EPAs. In Sierra Leone, NMJD, GCAP, YPPD and other civil society activists have resolved to campaign against the EPAs and urge our government not to sign up to the Agreement.