Business community wants ECOWAS to reject Morocco membership application

Nigeria’s key private sector players are mounting pressure on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to reject the application filed by Morocco for membership of the economic union.

The Nigerian private sector argues that Moroccan admittance into the union places the North African country on a pedestal to enjoy the free trade benefits of ECOWAS while West African countries are denied of exclusive regional benefits in North Africa.

They further state that Morocco already has a number of free trade relations with the European Union and will likely undermine the region’s negotiation position on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

“It is expected that any other non-Western African country joining ECOWAS will unduly benefit from the existing free trade in the region. It may not matter admitting other countries ordinarily, but where such country already has existing Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with the EU, it does matter at least by transitivity – if free trade arrangement holds between EU and Morocco; and between Morocco and ECOWAS; then it holds between ECOWAS and EU,” said Frank Jacobs, president of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), who spoke on behalf of the Organised Private sector, including the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), Nigeria Association of Small-Scale Industrialists (NASSI) and Nigeria Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME).

Morocco, a country in North Africa, announced on February 24 that it had applied to join the 15-member ECOWAS. The union considered the application at a June meeting in Liberia, fuelling concerns of crisis at the union.

Morocco was readmitted into the African Union on January 30 after a 33-year absence as a Sovereign Observer.

The North African country is seen as a close ally of the EU, whose relationship is situated in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and the Union for the Mediterranean.

Nigeria’s private sector fears that Morocco membership will undermine the strategic position held by Africa’s most populous country in the union and weaken the union’s delay tactics on the EPA.

Morocco promised to build infrastructure if admitted into the ECOWAS regional bloc, heightening fears that Europe could be routing finished products through Morocco to West Africa without paying import duties if North African country is admitted into the union.

“The Moroccan economy is not industrialised and so, one wonders where it will get industrial goods to trade with ECOWAS. The obvious is that it would further the interest of the EU by becoming a strategic channel for pushing in EU goods that Nigeria is currently challenging through the back door.

“The country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is 64.7 percent as contained in the 2016 International Monetary Fund(IMF) report against the IMF benchmark of 40 percent for developing and emerging economies clearly reveals the likelihood of a mere wishful thinking,” Jacobs stated.

He stated that based on trend analysis, ECOWAS has little trade benefit expectations from Morocco as the historical trade pattern relations of Morocco reveals no notable trading ties with ECOWAS states.

“Going by her current demand pattern, Morocco trades with Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Russia, Algeria and EU. All of these imply that over the years that Morocco has little or no trade dealings with ECOWAS states,” Jacobs said.

 

ODINAKA ANUDU