In Focus

March 23rd 2009 sees the start of a marathon ballot in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the EU’s push for Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. The two-day vote will include several resolutions plus votes on the assent to the two agreements signed with governments so far. Information obtained by CEO through access-to-documents requests shows that the EU Commission not only relied on arm-twisting Southern governments to push these agreements forward. DG Trade also put considerable energy into orchestrating African business support for its own negotiating aims.

The paper analyses the EPAs current status. It begins with general comment and analysis of that particular issue, including in USFTAs and its possible consequences. (On some issues, USFTAs may have worse consequences for development than European ones. It is often a matter of degree as the principles are commonly similar). It then goes on to analyse specific provisions of the interim EPAs. For areas other than goods, the analysis is of the CARIFORUM- EU EPA as that is the only ACP-EU EPA which goes beyond goods. Interestingly, the CARIFORUM-EC EPA appears to be a basis for similar provisions for other EU bilateral/regional trade agreements from what we understand.