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The approach taken by the European Union (EU) in trade talks with Africa has been strongly criticised in an official report commissioned by France, the new holder of the EU’s rotating presidency.
Newsletter n.1 july 2008
EPAs or Economic Partnership Agreements
The Cotonou Agreement, signed in 2000, is a trade partnership pact between the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) and the Europe Community (EC). Its predecessor, the Lomé Convention, originally signed in 1975, provided the framework within which trade relations and development cooperation between the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States have been conducted with the European Union. The centerpiece of the trade relations has been non-reciprocal preferential trade access for ACP goods into Europe.EPAs: the state of play
By the end of 2007, the 15 CARIFORUM states initialled a "full" EPA, 18 African and two Pacific states initialled interim EPAs, and 42 ACP countries did not initial EPAs at all. These countries are trading with the EU since 1 January 2008 on the basis of the GSP.Who will benefit from EPAs?
Currently the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries are locked in negotiations with the European Union (EU) those Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) as part of the implementation of the Cotonou Agreement. Initially, when the EPA negotiations began in 2001 there was going to be just one agreement. It was to be between the then 15 countries of Europe, and 76 of the ACP countries. Since then the EU has enlarged itself to 27 members still signing as one entity with full powers given to the European Commission (EC) to negotiate for all of them. The ACP countries in the meantime have allowed themselves to be fragmented into three regions (Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific); then, later, into six (Western Africa, Central Africa, Eastern Africa, Southern Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific); and later still into several -- in the case of Africa, into its almost total fragmentation.ACP Ministers against EPAs
Economic Partnership Agreements came very often under heavy attack from ACP leaders and trade officers. At a NGO side event at UNCTAD XII, for instance, convened by the Africa Trade Network with the objective of presenting its views and engaging with officials, Deputy Minister Rob Davies of South Africa's Trade and Industry Ministry.Services on the spot
At the close of 2007, the EU completed a comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the Cariforum countries. The EPA with the Cariforum is comprehensive in the sense that it extends to trade in goods, services and all the new generation issues including government procurement, competition law, and others. With the rest of the regions negotiating these Agreements, Europe secured interim Agreements on trade in goods only. Ngo South Centre realized an analytical note providing an overview of key provisions related to trade in services in the Cariforum EPA text and comments on the possible implications for other ACP countries in Africa and the Pacific, which may soon initiate negotiations for the reciprocal liberalisation of trade in services with Europe.Mid-term review of the Economic Partnership Agreements
The networks of farmers’ organizations of five ACP sub-regions have carried out their own mid-term assessment of the state of progress in the negotiation of the EPA with the E.U. This document represents a synthesis of the most important points emerged by the consultations which took place in the five regions and it is a formal contribution to the review process as foreseen in the Cotonou Agreement.Updates: position and comments from EU Governments
French Report Condemns EPAs as Anti-Development.The approach taken by the European Union (EU) in trade talks with Africa has been strongly criticised in an official report commissioned by France, the new holder of the EU’s rotating presidency.
Partnership for Change project has two thematic focus connected to the heart of development policies and the struggle against poverty.
MDGs and EPAs, central themes of the project, were indeed both created as development policies: the first one, with the aim of committing governments in the South and in the North on punctual development objectives to be reached by 2015, the second one, proposing economic agreements of free trade as an access point to development for many ACP countries.
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