(NAIROBI) - African trade unions Thursday called for a cancellation of interim trade accords with the EU that replaced preferential tariff agreements early this year, saying they were detrimental to Africa.

Many African nations and the European Union late last year signed interim Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), replacing deals that gave preferential market access to Africa, but expired by year-end after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) declared them illegal.

African civil societies said the new tariff system would condemn hundreds of millions of Africans into joblessness, deeper poverty and scupper hopes of growth.

"We join the call for the nullification of the interim EPAs and for appropriate time to be given for negotiating new trade relations between Africa and Europe that take account of Africa's genuine needs for development and regional intergration," said International Trade Union Confederation-Africa (ITUC-Africa) secretary general Kwasi Adu-Amankwah.

Adu-Amankwah said the richer European Union arm-twisted Africa into the deals.

Further dampening the continent's hope for growth "in a global market, African nations come out as weak partners, subject to neo-liberal dictates of international financial institutions and their accompanying trade rules established by WTO," he added.

The interim deals open up African markets to European products as long as they do not affect sensitive agricultural and industrial commodities.

African governments said they accepted the deal because it helped countries develop while diversifying their economies and meeting WTO requirements while accessing to European goods and services.

Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.