bilaterals.org logo
bilaterals.org logo

EPAs

Stop unfair trade deals between Europe and ACP countries!
9-Feb-2007 WEED
Open letter by more than 180 European NGOs to German Chancellor Angela Merkel
W. Africa accepts year-end EU trade deal deadline
7-Feb-2007 Reuters
West African countries said on Tuesday they had agreed to conclude a new trade deal with the European Union by the end of this year and drop demands for a two-year delay.
Deadlock of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) in Ouagadougou
3-Feb-2007 TWN Africa
EPA negotiators from West Africa and the European Union meeting in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from the 23 -26 January, failed to reach agreement on key issues regarding the results of the mid-term review of the EPA negotiations and the way forward.
Activists protest free trade pact at EU base in Kenya
25-Jan-2007 AFP
Some 2,000 anti-globalisation activists were marching in Kenya’s capital Nairobi to protest against a plan to liberalise trade between developing nations and the European Union.
SA, EU hope to finalise partnership action plan during German presidency
24-Jan-2007 Engineering News
Despite the unpopularity of the single-country partnership proposal, it is being pursued primarily based on Europe’s analysis of South Africa as the “locomotive” of Africa economic development and integration.
Afrique de l’Ouest: APE - Ce que les paysans attendent de la CEDEAO
20-Jan-2007 AllAfrica.com
Le Réseau des organisations paysannes et des producteurs de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (ROPPA). Cette organisation est en campagne contre les APE dans leur formule actuelle, et propose de ne pas les signer. Basiaka Dao est le président de la Confédération paysanne du Faso, membre du ROPPA. Il dit en quoi ces accords ne sont pas bons pour les agriculteurs et les économies des pays de la CEDEAO.
EU pact to open floodgate of imports
19-Jan-2007 AllAfrica.com
Thousands of farmers, jua kali artisans and hundreds of thousands of workers and their families will end up in deeper poverty if the Kenyan government signs an agreement that will allow farm and industrial products from Europe into the local market.
Forward with the struggle to stop the EPAs
11-Jan-2007 Third World Network Africa
From 11-14 December 2006, the 9th Annual Review Meeting of the Africa Trade Network took place in Accra, Ghana. This is the final declaration that came out of the meeting.
Push on Capitol Hill to boost US-Caricom ties
11-Jan-2007 The Nation
With the Democrats getting ready to take charge of Capitol Hill in Washington, a multifaceted initiative designed to boost economic and political ties between the United States and CARICOM has been placed on the table. It’s the brainchild of Manchester Trade, a private firm of international business advisors in Washington.
EPA road-show rolls on
4-Jan-2007 AllAfrica.com
Negotiations between African countries and the European Union aimed at finalizing free trade deals known as Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are continuing apace. As part of the process that will finalise EPA deals sometime in 2007, Eastern and Southern Africa countries have just submitted a draft EPA document to the EU. But, in this article, Richard Kamidza documents the astonishing lack of consultation in the negotiating process, claiming that in some cases even cabinet ministers don’t know the details.
Midterm Review of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs): Independent contribution of the regional networks of farmers’ organizations
29-Dec-2006
The networks of farmers’ organizations of five ACP sub-regions (Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa and the Caribbean) have carried out their own mid-term assessment of the state of progress in the negotiation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in order to contribute to the formal review foreseen in article 37,4 of the Cotonou Agreement.
“Is it possible to negotiate development agreements between the EU and the ACP regions ?”
29-Dec-2006
The ACP farmer networks present their contributions to the Comprehensive Review of EPA Preparations and Negotiation for All ACP Regions
Gender review of the Economic Partnership Agreements
21-Dec-2006 IGTN
Paper presented to the European Commission in Brussels by Liepollo Lebohang Pheko from IGTN-Africa on the gender impacts of liberalization of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA).
EU tactics over African trade are ’bribery’, say aid groups
8-Dec-2006 Guardian
The European Union is insisting that some of Africa’s poorest countries accept liberalisation of services, investment and competition policy as the price of better access to the world’s richest market, it emerged last night.
Old trade beefs to resurface at ACP meet
6-Dec-2006 IPS
Not many Caribbean leaders are expected to attend the two-day summit of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group starting in Sudan Thursday, but the region will follow its agenda quite keenly, including a proposed Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union and a new threat to its ailing banana industry.
Leaked letter from the EC’s Falkenberg and Manservisi to Tavola on Pacific EPA
5-Dec-2006 Article in the Financial Times
Letter leaked to the Financial Times outlining the European Commission’s response to the Pacific’s proposals on their EPA, rejecting most of them.
ECOWAS seeks extension of agreement with EU
3-Dec-2006 This Day
The regional ministerial committee monitoring the negotiation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between West Africa and the European Union has requested a three year extension of the 2007 deadline for the conclusion of the negotiations for a free trade area of the two economic blocs.
Some dangers and prospects of the regional and international situations
2-Dec-2006 Political Affairs Magazine
In the economic field, imperialism’s consternation with the slow pace of forging multilateral North-South agreements under the Doha round of meetings of the World Trade Organization have led to the more energetic push for bilateral Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).
Reject the Economic Partnership Agreement EU-ACP!
22-Nov-2006 Via Campesina
The member organizations of Via Campesina in Africa, in Europe and in the Caribbean consider that the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP) are a new threat for the peasants and small farmers in the four regions. We ask a definitive stop in the negotiations and the opening of a period of debate and analyses on the impacts of free-trade on our national agricultures. Alternatives based on the right to food sovereignty exist.
Unequal partners
21-Nov-2006 Oxfam New Zealand
This paper by Claire Godfrey provides a wide-ranging look at the many problems with the EPAs, and investigates how these could impact on the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries’ future development.