MAN cautions against ECOWAS/EU free trade deal
…May costs the nation $1.3tr revenue
Nigeria may lose up to 1.3 trillion dollars in revenues if it signs the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN) has said and thereby cautioned the Federal Government against signing the deal.
The statement issued by its President, Mr Frank Jacobs, in Lagos on Monday calls for caution.
Nigeria fears that the deal may undermine its economic interest considering that it involves two regions with unequal economic strengths.
According to MAN, “Nigeria should at this time look at ways we can come out of the economic recession, by generating more foreign exchange from exports instead of signing such agreement.
“We totally oppose signing if the agreement will stifle the Nigerian market and hinder the government’s effort at industrialisation with finished items from European countries.
“As an estimate, Nigeria can lose up to 1.3 trillion dollars if the partnership is signed.
“The nation currently lacks the technology to produce finished goods with its commodities, where it has comparative advantage. Signing the EPA will stifle all these efforts.
“The markets will be further choked with products that will cause undue competition to the existing locally manufactured products, and we currently lack the capacity to flood the European market with our own products.”
The association through its president said that the EPA would stifle the informal trading sector which included a majority of the population.
Jacobs said that all manufacturers were opposed to Nigeria signing EPA because the country generally lacked capacity to compete with Europe.
Despite being beneficiaries to the letters of EPA, including a 6.5 billion pledge by the EU to support infrastructure development in the ECOWAS region in a 2015 to 2020 programme Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast are the three ECOWAS countries that are states yet to sign the document.
It would be recalled that the Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, in June during the 49th Ordinary Session of ECOWAS in Dakar, said that the government would consult key players, such as MAN, before deciding on the agreement.
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