Spotlight: Tanzania pulls out of EU sponsored economic partnership

Tanzanian authorities said on Friday they were pulling out of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union (EU) bloc.

The announcement made the east African nation, the second largest economy in the region, the first to pull out of the EPAs from the East African Community (EAC) member countries.

The EPAs were meant to allow the EAC bloc to trade directly with the EU countries.

Aziz Mlima, the country's Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the move was aimed at protecting the country's infant economy now that the government was spearheading the establishment of an industrial economy.

According to political and economic observers, Tanzania's pullout from the EU-sponsored economic agreements will likely spell a big blow to Kenya, a member of the EAC bloc which had intense interest in the deals as they benefited its flower exports to EU countries.

Mlima said besides protecting local industries, there was still some confusion following the United Kingdom's vote to withdrawal from the EU about two weeks ago.

"The possible biggest harm derived from signing the EPAs is turning small countries' economies into international markets for developed countries' products, hence killing their local industries," he said.

He added that apart from economic interests, signing of EPAs on July 18, this year, for Tanzania was too early given that it needed more time to study the agreements by various public departments and private stakeholders.

He said other individual EAC countries of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan were free to sign the EPAs if they felt they would benefit from them.

A renowned economist, Samuel Wangwe, commended the move, saying it had no benefits to Tanzania as it favoured Kenya with its flowers and vegetables exports to EU countries duty free.

"EPA won't help in promoting our local industries but rather, will benefit a lot given that developing countries have standard goods to sell in EA markets," he said.

The Minister for Industry and Trade, Charles Mwijage, also commended the move, saying EPA agreements were tricky as EU allowed goods exports despite being aware that African countries could not meet international standards due to their smaller economies.

He said allowing EU goods to freely flood the EAC meant killing local industries and turning the country into a source of raw materials.

In May, this year, Tanzanian former President Benjamin Mkapa warned East African leaders over embracing EPAs; saying they could negatively impact the countries' pre-mature economy.

Mkapa said signing EPA could hinder development pass-way of EA countries and lead them into de-industrialization, adding that he did not understand how such a powerful bloc like the EU could have trade agreement with developing countries.

European countries have been soliciting EA countries signing EPA through offering customs-free access to their (European) markets, especially for Kenyan products. Endit