The National Youth Association for Food Security (NaYAFS) in collaboration with the National Alliance for Food Security, on Tuesday organised a day’s workshop for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and media practitioners on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), at the Baobab Holiday Resort in Bijilo.

The workshop was aimed at sensitising stakeholders like policy makers, lawmakers, civil society, farmers, private sector and the media, on the state of affairs of the negotiations and the stakes that lie ahead.

In his presentation on EPAs current state of negotiation, Alhagie Kebbeh of  NaYAFS said that the special treatment will continue to be reserved for the poorest ACP least developed countries like The Gambia. He also revealed that unless the ACP countries become markedly more competitive to offer products which can face international competition and even within their own markets, as well as surmount all kinds of non-tariff constraints, the EPAs will certainly turn out to be of little benefit to them.

Kebbeh lamented the fact that Gambians  leave Gambian or African products to buy the other products being imported from countries outside the continent. He finally revealed many effects of the EPAs negotiating countries in the African continent. Buba Khan of Action Aid The Gambia, who gave a presentation on the private sector’s position on EPAs, suggested the need for communities to be informed to know the impacts that EPAs will provide for them.

Khan stressed that some of the items being imported are always cheap, which therefore affects the local Gambian products, as the local communities do not understand the reasons they should buy the expensive local Gambian or African products. He expressed his disappointment with the fact that products are imported at anytime in The Gambia. This, he noted, is not helping the country’s farmers. Khan finally assured that the sensitisation will continue to reach the grassroots level through a regional tour of the country.