Europe-African summit fails to reach trade deal

European and African leaders failed to make progress on a new trade agreement between their continents today, officials said, deepening tension at a summit already marred by disputes over Zimbabwe and Darfur.

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said most African leaders had rejected European Union proposals for a free trade deal, known as European Partnership Agreements, or EPAs. While the deals were not being hammered out at the summit in Portugal, the meeting had been seen as a chance to push for progress.

“It was said several times during the plenary session and it was said again this morning: African states reject the EPAs,” Mr Wade said in angry comments at a news conference.

His tone of indignation reflected an increasingly tense atmosphere at the end of a two-day summit in Lisbon that was intended to foster a new era of close relations between Europe and Africa.

The meeting between leaders of the 53-member African Union and 27-nation EU was their first in seven years.

As the summit opened yesterday, deep differences over the human rights record of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and measures to help end the conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur had been evident.

Asked what was his message to Europe as he arrived at the summit venue today, Mugabe said nothing but raised his arm and made a fist.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday the EU was “united” in condemning Mugabe for what they view as his economic mismanagement, failure to curb corruption and contempt for democracy. Prime Minister Gordon Brown stayed away from the summit in protest against Mugabe’s attendance.

Measures to help end the conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur brought another point of contention. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has so far refused to allow non-Africans into a 26,000-strong UN-AU peacekeeping force planned for Darfur. EU nations, meanwhile, have failed to come up with the needed military hardware to support the operation.

On trade, Senegal’s Mr Wade said he and South African President Thabo Mbeki had led African opposition to the EU’s proposals which, he said, “aren’t in Africa’s interest”.

He did not provide details.

The EU wants to meet a December 31 deadline set by the World Trade Organisation for replacing its trading system with former European colonies around the world, including in Africa. The WTO has ruled that the EU’s 30-year-old preferential trade agreement with Africa was unfair to other trading nations and violated international rules.

The negotiations have lasted five years and officials had hoped the summit would bring a breakthrough.

During previous talks, African governments have said the agreements would do little to boost their access to European markets. They also viewed the conditions as an EU attempt to meddle in African affairs.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso acknowledged the difficulty of reaching free-trade deals between wealthy European countries and poor African nations.

“It is a challenge for both Africans and Europeans and will require time,” Mr Barroso said in a speech to the gathering.

The two sides will press ahead with talks on interim accords with individual African countries to assure they continue to enjoy privileged access to European markets, he said.

“We are nearly there and we now need to focus all of our energy to achieve this priority objective,” Mr Barroso said.

The EU says a deal will boost trade and help the development of African economies. It has warned that nations with which it does not forge new agreements by January will automatically lose preferential trade privileges and receive only limited access to EU markets under existing world trade rules.