Research by the Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD) has said that there is need for safeguarding the agriculture industry, if the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are to be applied.

This is because agriculture is regarded significant to the regional economy, employing about 70 percent of the estimated 120 million people. In Rwanda, agriculture employs about 80 percent of the population and produces 70 percent of export revenues.

John Bosco Kanyangoga, a trade expert said recently during the presentation of the research findings on the effects of EPAs on the agricultural products that the industry is one of the six key clusters under the EPAs negotiation.

"Owing to its importance as an income generating activity and source of food, there is need for exception. But these should be flexible for change depending on the situation,” Kanyangoga said.

The interim EPAs were between the East African Community (EAC) and the European Union (EU) with a rationale of protecting the interests of regional trade arrangements to European market, given that the duty quota free access to the EU was to the end at the close of 2007.

Currently, the interim deal allows the EAC Market access of 18 percent on the exclusive list which is dominated by agriculture products.

Deliberations on agriculture are ongoing and currently at the text-based stage. In the text, some of the key elements are removal of EU’s subsidies and domestic support. These are meant to allow the signing of comprehensive deals come July this year.

The ACORD study carried out in collaboration with Cuts International was meant to assess the best ways and means of safeguarding agriculture as well as opportunities to take advantage of.

The findings also highlighted challenges within the context of EPAs taking Rwanda’s agriculture sector as the case study. Most of the challenges such as inadequate research and development were relative across the region.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of EAC Affairs, Robert Sali, said that despite the needs for safeguarding measures, EAC partner states should consider value addition.

"We should think of addressing our constraints on the supply-side in order to cause a balance in trade.”
In  a similar development, the EAC Secretariat is also studying the impact of economic agreements on the regional economy to facilitate regional negotiators towards comprehensive agreements.

The study covers several sectors including in all the five EAC Partner States of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

It was argued that it was not possible to conclude comprehensive EPAs that fully address the aspirations of all parties.

They, therefore, resolved to work towards a framework agreement as a stepping stone towards comprehensive deals.

However, the agreements have aroused a lot of criticisms worldwide claiming that they  were exploitative.

But for fear of losing other economic bloc benefits, the EAC proposed that harmonisation of the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA)/SADC-EPA negotiations should continue through the EAC/COMESA/SADC tripartite process.

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