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ACP

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.
Offering a realistic alternative
21-Nov-2006 Oxfam New Zealand
Outlines the legal and moral obligation of the EU to offer the Pacific ACP an attractive alternative to the EPAs.
Fishing for a future
21-Nov-2006 Oxfam New Zealand
Provides background information on fisheries in the Pacific and explores the pros and cons of a Pacific fisheries agreement with the EU.
Multiple problems in EPAs highlighted at workshop
31-Oct-2006 TWN
The absence of development content and the severe effects of rapid trade liberalization were among key problems highlighted by policymakers and NGO participants at a workshop held here on the Economic Partnership Agreements between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group.
Britain urges EU to change stance on free trade talks
16-Oct-2006 The Guardian
Gareth Thomas, international development minister, and Ian McCartney, minister of state for trade, are calling for the European commission to be more flexible in its approach and consider alternative agreements, should developing countries choose not to enter an EPA.
EU flexes its colonial muscles with divide and rule strategies to crush former colonies with unfair trade agreements
11-Oct-2006 Black Britain
Representatives of ACP countries have been in the UK to lobby politicians to pressurise the government over its proposed new trade agreements. Black Britain spoke to them about how the agreements will destroy their economies and their lives.
EPAs negotiations: Civil society calls for caution
3-Oct-2006
Civil society organisations have called for caution as Nigeria, the Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS) and other African, Caribbean and Pacific(ACP) countries begin the second phase of negotiations with the European Union on the proposed Economic Partnership Agreement(EPAs).
Mauritian MLAs asked to stop the process of EPA
28-Sep-2006
A Mauritian political party called Rezistans ek Alternativ (RA) has asked local MLAs to help in stopping the process of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) which, according to its members, Mauritius and fourteen other African countries have agreed to negotiate with the European Union, without realising the implication of such an agreement.
10 reasons to challenge the Pacific EPA
28-Sep-2006
Do the Pacific Islands’ negotiators genuinely hope they can negotiate a beneficial Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union or are they simply going through the motions and doing what is required of them under the Cotonou Agreement 2000? In the secretive chess game of trade negotiations it is impossible to know.
ACP-EU relations: The development challenge of EPAs
27-Sep-2006 South Centre
The South Centre, in partnership with a consortium of ACP and European NGOs, is organizing a high-level conference on negotiations related to Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) in Brussels on 12 October 2006.
Development compatibility of EPAS - A critical civil society review of the EU-ACP negotiations on Regional Free Trade Agreements
27-Sep-2006 WEED
The conference focuses on three particular problem areas of EPAs. Are EPAs endangering food sovereignty and rural development of mostly agrarian oriented ACP states? Are EPAs in their current form undermining autonomous initiatives of regional integration? What effects are to be expected from a broad liberalisation agenda including the so called "new issues” of investments, competition and public procurement?
Aid groups say African trade deals deepen poverty
26-Sep-2006
African countries risk sinking further into poverty if the European Union pushes ahead with new free trade deals that could harm local industry and farming by unfair competition, non-governmental aid groups said on Tuesday.
SOMO Briefing Paper: EPA negotiations do not promote the right investment policies in Africa
26-Sep-2006
The EU strongly advocates that attracting more foreign investment is a solution to African development problems and that African countries therefore need to include strict investment liberalisation measures in EPAs.
SOMO Briefing Paper: The risks and dangers of liberalisation of services in Africa under EPAs
26-Sep-2006
The European Union (EU) is negotiating with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries for a new free trade agreement: the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). The liberalisation of services and therefore opening the market for foreign investors is part of these negotiations.
The failed WTO talks and EPAs negotiations
19-Sep-2006 SEATINI
ACP countries cannot continue with the EPAs agenda as if the failed WTO talks are irrelevant to the EPAs context. An option would be to take advantage of the proposed review of the Cotonou Agreement upon which the EPAs negotiations are based. ACP countries should not wait for the EU to do this for them.
EU begins to soften its position on EPA negotiations
24-Aug-2006
In what could be described as a softening of its position on the Economic Partnership Agreements negotiations between EU and ECOWAS, the EU’s Ghana office says it is hopeful that the concerns of ECOWAS would be addressed “before” the implementation of the EPAs begin.
European Union, ECOWAS to regulate trade
10-Aug-2006
The European Union (EU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have decided to negotiate an agreement to regulate their trade relations under the new World Trade Organization (WTO) Compatible Framework.
Civil society groups want African leaders to stop trade talks with EU
10-Aug-2006
African Civil Society has called on the governments to stop negotiations on the proposed Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union EU, saying it would undermine development and lead to increased poverty.
No EPA without investment rules and full reciprocity, Falkenberg insists!
6-Jul-2006
Karl Falkenberg, Deputy Director-General of Trade at the European Commission, says its is not worth having an Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and ECOWAS if the Agreement did not enshrine Free Trade Agreement-style full reciprocity between the parties and liberalised rules for Investment.