In depth

25 August 2009 - Six Eastern and Southern African (ESA) countries will this Saturday sign the interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) in Mauritius.

The interim EPA would be signed on August 29, 2009 between EU and Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

2009-07-28 - Member states of the East African Community (EAC) are demanding an independent deal on development assistance before they sign a framework for new economic partnership agreements (FEPA) with Europe. According to the bloc’s Secretary-General Mr Juma Mwapachu, although the partner states are willing to sign a deal on the framework, concerns over development assistance have prevented them from doing so. “We need some breathing space so that we work towards what is best for us with regard to development. They need to have some provisions to address the supply side constraints”, he said.

Servaas van den Bosch interviews TSWELOPELE MOREMI, executive secretary of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU)

Aug 25 (IPS) - It's "do or die" for the world's oldest customs union. Disagreement over the development consequences of the EU's proposed economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with African states has threatened to split the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) a year before its centenary in 2010.

27th July 2009 - A number of Namibian civil society organisations, as well as the Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI), have supported the government’s decision not to sign the interim Economic Partnership Agreement (I-EPA) with the European Union (EU), amid concerns that it caused discord among Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) member States.

Thursday 4 June 2009 - The Economic Partnership Agreement, EPA continues to cause controversy and division among African regional block groupings. After the recent criticism of the European agreement by African trade experts in Johannesburg, African governments are beginning to speak up and demand for fairer trade deals.

03 Aug 09 - In their current form, the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union (EU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) would limit the SADC region’s policy space to promote industrial and agricultural development, would hamper efforts to promote trade diversification, and would undermine regional integration processes, a top official said on Monday.

The report of an African Union EPA Negotiations Coordination Meeting that was held on 22-23 July in Gaborone was published on the acp-eu-trade websiteThe document provides, inter alia, an overview of the state of play of the negotiations and the main areas of conflicts.

Online resources for EU Parliament committees

William Haomae, co-president of the ACP-EU Council of Ministers and foreign affairs and external trade minister of Solomon Islands, reiterated ACP EPA demands at a meeting of the Joint ACP-EU Council of Ministers meeting held on 29 May 2009 in Brussels.

The EU Council adopted conclusions on 18 May 2009 which welcome the fact that, even though the deadline for meeting its Trade-Related Assistance target has not been reached, the EU is already close to meeting its collective pledge of 2 billion EUR and reaffirms its commitment to reach its 2010 target.