Anti-EPA campaigners target Botswana

The meeting, under the auspices of the Ghana-based Third World Network (TWN) Africa, identified exporters, politicians and consumers as possible groups to target as they broaden their campaigns ahead of the December 31 deadline.

Thomas Deve, a campaigner from a Zimbabwe-based civil society organisation, Mwengo, said their next turf could be Botswana, where politicians and civil society seem not too keen on the campaign against EPAs. Botswana, which currently exports beef under a duty-free quota to the EU market, might not be seriously affected by the EPAs, but the country will be affected as the agreements will mean that Botswana companies will not compete with the heavily subsidised European companies. Under the EPAs, goods and services moving between the Eurozone and Africa, the Pacific and Caribbean (ACP) countries would be tariff-free. At the same time, these free trade zones would mean that European companies would compete with smaller African companies.