NAYAFS Will Not Relent Until… Says Majidi Jallow

Mr. Majidi Jallow, on behalf of the National Youth Association for Food Security (NAYAFS), has said his association and the civil society in general would not relent until it was seen to it that negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreements between EC-ACP countries were ceased in order to give time to ACP states to first integrate for stronger economic blocs.

Mr. Jallow was speaking recently at the opening of a one-day sensitization workshop for stakeholders on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union and the African Caribbean and Pacific countries (EU-ACP) held at the Baobab Holiday Resort in Bijilo.

According to Mr. Jallow, his association had strategically placed itself as one of the leading advocates on fair world trade not only for The Gambia but also for the Southern bloc as whole.

The EPAs, he said, are considered to be key instruments for the involvement of ACP States in the world economy.

Speaking earlier, Mr. Lamin Nyangado of ActionAid The Gambia said that from the initial stage of the negotiations, the vision of the EC and ACP countries of how the EU-ACP trade agreements should look like have been very difficult particularly in the areas of trade liberalization and development.

Mr. Nyangado added that The Gambia’s main policy, on the other hand, was to allow market forces a reasonable degree of free play suggested by an attractive incentive package for domestic and foreign investments with the aim of facilitating trade as an instrument of development, employment and poverty eradication by 2013.

He however revealed that the EC is increasingly using its economic and political power to force its own vision of EPAs.

The programme, aimed at sensitizing stakeholders and lobbying for national governments on the EPAs negotiation process between the EU region and the struggling economies of the ACP countries, brought together participants from government departments, the National Assembly, civil society, politicians, NGOs and the donor community.