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Controversial Economic Partnership Agreements PDF Print E-mail
Written by AEFJN   
Tuesday, 25 December 2007
In the last 90 days, the EU finally accepted the need for more time to comprehensively conclude the negotiations in all areas. In this regard, the European Commission (EC) unilaterally devised Framework Economic Partnership Agreements which take into account trade in goods for agriculture, manufactured, fisheries products and others.

The pressure exerted by the European Commission (EC) towards the NON-LDCs countries from 4 African regions to sign “Interim Economic Partnership Agreements (IEPAs)” was the main issue of disagreement at the EU-Africa summit on 7-9 December 2007 in Lisbon. The EU insisted on the signing of Interim agreements to liberalize “goods only” by December 31 when the WTO waiver for the current Cotonou preferential trade conditions expires. This pressure put on individual countries to sign IEPAs has splitted the regions and jeopardised the regional integration process. The IEPAs include a commitment to continue negotiations towards a full EPA to be signed in 2008 that will include liberalization of services, investments, government procurement, competition policy and intellectual property rights.

Products from countries having signed an EPA will have free entry into the EU from 1st January 2008, while those from NON-LDCs not having signed by the end of 2007 will lose trade privileges and will have to pay tariffs when entering the EU market, making them non-competitive. The exporters from these countries have put pressure on their governments to sign, in order not to loose certain markets. All the products from the poorest countries (LDCs) except arms, rice and sugar will be able to enter the EU market free of tariff, following the “Everything but Arms” (EBA).

West African region. As a region ECOWAS resists signing EPAs. Considering impossible to reach an agreement before Dec 2007 the West Africa ministerial on 5th October 2007 asked the EU for an extension of the WTO waiver (permission to export to the EU under the Cotonou conditions), so that EPA negotiations could continue with the necessary time to forge an agreement that will enhance regional integration and support West Africa to take advantage of globalization. The EU denied this possibility. ECOWAS considers that an interim agreement as proposed by the EC would not have a positive impact on development. There are concerns in the Region that EPA severely undermines regional integration. Ivory Coast signed an Interim EPA on 7 December 2007 to safeguard agricultural products, particularly bananas. Ghana signed on 13 December 2007. Nigeria resists and has no intention of signing EPA and has applied to the EU for a commercial regime (GSP+ ) whose conditions will be similar to those under the Cotonou Agreement. The EU insists that ACP countries do not accomplish the conditions to enter a GSP+, and that even if they would, they could not enter this regime before January 2009. Senegal resists signing EPA and its President Mr. Wade was very outspoken at the EU-Africa Summit. He said: "It was said several times during the plenary session and it was said again this morning: African states reject the EPAs." Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Sierra Leone, Togo have not signed and resist. As they are poor countries (LDC) their exports can enter the EU free of tariffs and of quota (except for sugar and rice).

Central Africa region. On 29 October, Central African ministers pulled back from signing a deal, saying too much work still needed to be done to negotiate specific trade concessions for market access in goods and services and related development aid. The ministers asked the EU to extend the WTO waiver and keep the Cotonou preferences for 2-years, following the demand of banana producers from Cameroon and Cote d'Ivoire. However, the European Commission absolutely refused this request on 15/11/2007. Cameroon that has an interest in safeguarding banana exports to the EU signed an Interim EPA on 17 December 2007 in Yaoundé. Mandelson said he expected Gabon will sign an agreement soon. The other non-LDCs in the region, the Republic of the Congo has shown little interest in the negotiations.

Eastern and Southern African region (ESA). The region is fragmented and its position unclear. However, negotiations for a full EPA are planned to be continued with a view to reaching a comprehensive agreement EAC-EC by July 2009 and with the whole ESA region by the end of 2008. The Eastern Africa Community-EAC (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda) signed an IEPA on 27 November 2007 in Kampala. Zimbabwe, Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros have signed an ESA-EC agreement. Zambia also agreed to the deal, although it has opted out of the key trade provisions and Malawi did sign the agreement on the 10th Dec. The agreement covers market access in goods, fisheries and development cooperation. A comprehensive EPA intends to be completed by the end of 2008. Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan are negotiating in the ESA grouping, but have not yet submitted any market access offers. Being LDCs, even if they don’t sign the agreement, they would be able to export to the EC under the EBA initiative after expiry of the Cotonou preferences. The Democratic Republic of Congo is currently negotiating EPAs with both the ESA and the CEMAC regions; it has not yet decided with which region RDC will sign an EPA.

Southern Africa Development Community - SADC. Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Mozambique signed an IEPA on 23rd November 2007 in Brussels. Namibia signed an IEPA on 12 December 2007, while South Africa refuses to sign, but can continue exporting to the EC under the bilateral agreement with the EU. The agreement not only divides SADC, but also SACU, the customs union between South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland, as South Africa has not signed it. The position of Angola is unclear. While the EC says that Angola intends to join the IEPA soon, other sources say that Angola is not interested in an EPA. Negotiations towards a comprehensive regional EPA are planned to be continued in 2008.
Up to the 13/12/2007 out of the 47 African countries, 19 have signed an EPA, among them 13 Non-LDCs. Among the Non-LDCs that have not signed are: Nigeria; Gabon and Congo Brazzaville.

Begoña Iñarra


To see more details on the products to be liberalized and the periods for each country go to our website http://www.aefjn.be/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=290&Itemid=92



1 WTO World Trade Organization

2 GSP+ Generalised System of Preferences, (duty and quota-free access) granted by the EU to vulnerable developing countries that have
implemented sustainable development and good governance policies under the "GSP+" incentive.

3 ACP African, Caribbean and Pacific countries
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 25 December 2007 )