WTO: E.U. Trade Pact With Africa Is Unfair
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
LISBON, Portugal — The first summit between Europe and Africa in seven years came to an acrimonious end yesterday with leaders squabbling over human rights and no progress on a looming trade pact deadline.
Old divisions surfaced at the two-day summit as leaders swapped accusations over the crises in Zimbabwe and Darfur, and postcolonial tensions deepened over free trade deals.
The World Trade Organization has ruled that the European Union’s 30-year-old preferential trade agreement with Africa was unfair to other trading nations and violated international rules. New deals are meant to be finalized by December 31.
President Wade of Senegal said most African leaders had rejected the European Union’s free trade proposals, known as Economic Partnership Agreements, and wouldn’t discuss them further.
The proposals “aren’t in Africa’s interest,” Mr. Wade said at a news conference.
