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EPAs

Pacific Forum admits problems sealing a Economic Partnership Agreement
1-Aug-2007 Radio Fiji
The Pacific Forum has for the first time publicly admitted there have been problems in sealing an Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union.
Multilateral still better than bilateral talks
1-Aug-2007 IPS
"When we try to negotiate as individual countries, we give the Europeans the ammunition to divide and discriminate against us", said Zimbabwe’s Deputy Minister of Information and Publicity Bright Matonga.
Kenya: Govt should be cautious in free trade negotiations
31-Jul-2007 Kenya Times
To many sugarcane-dependent families in western Kenya, January 2008 will come with adverse consequences to livelihoods and life itself as Kenya joins more efficient sugar producers in the free market regimes of COMESA and EPA.
Concluding the Economic Partnership Agreements: prospects and challenges for the Central Africa (CEMAC) regional negotiating group
26-Jul-2007
On Monday 16 July 2007, EU and CEMAC Negotiators met in Yaounde to advance on the EPA negotiations. On the sideline of the meeting was a public manifestation by CSOs of the region to rise public awareness and especially that of the EU Negotiators on the likely impacts on EPAs on the development prospects of the region.
New rating poses threat to Kenya’s trade terms
24-Jul-2007 Business Daily Africa
Kenya’s terms of trade in the international market may change for the worse following its recent removal from the list of the world’s Least Developed Countries, it has emerged.
Africans fear ’ruin’ in Europe trade talks
24-Jul-2007 AllAfrica.com
African governments, policy analysts, regional economic groups and civil society organizations are increasingly speaking with one voice: the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) now being hammered out between Europe and the ACP countries must be significantly modified to safeguard those countries’ prospects for development.
Fish exporters set conditions for EPAs
23-Jul-2007
With barely five months to go before the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) come into force, it is still unclear whether agreements in the negotiations will be reached.
New trade deals: Africa to lose out as EU gains
23-Jul-2007
As Africa’s leaders met in Accra, Ghana, last week to consider ways of consolidating continental unity through increased trade, pertinent questions were being raised over the impact that a new trade arrangement between the European Union and the 75-member ACP trading bloc will have on regional integration.
CEMAC, whither to with EPAs?
21-Jul-2007
"These are not free trade agreements in the way anyone understand them. They are development tools, trade and Aid working together to deliver sustainable growth" Peter Mandelson, EU Trade Commissioner. The above is one of the high profiled empty speeches, characteristic feature of EU trade diplomacy. When Mandelson made the above speech, I came to the conclusion that I have witnessed the highest degree of hypocrisy since I came into this planet earth.
EPAs may stifle struggling flower industry
20-Jul-2007
Uganda’s flower industry needs government incentives and preferential European Union (EU) access to succeed, say members of the east African nation’s floricultural sector.
Can biofuels become sustainable?
20-Jul-2007 European Voice
Sustainability and trade barriers in biofuels could be addressed through new economic partnership agreements (EPAs), which are currently being negotiated with countries from the African, Caribbean and Pacific bloc. “New EPAs and the EDF will provide a framework for action on trade in biofuels,” a spokesman for the European development commissioner said. “From 2008 onwards this issue will become much more visible.”
EPA threatens the Human Right to Food of peasant farmers in Ghana
20-Jul-2007
Import surges of tomato paste and chicken parts already have severe impact on the ability of Ghanaian peasant farmers to feed their families. Cuts in the levels of import tariffs on these products, through an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU, are likely to cause further violations of their Human Right to adequate Food.
OECS trade ministers discuss European trade
18-Jul-2007
OECS Trade Ministers accommodated the European Commission’s principal negotiator for the Economic Partnership Agreement, Karl Falkenburg on Wednesday.
Africa ’’will not be the winner’’ of the EPAs
17-Jul-2007
"I do not know if a winner will emerge from the signing of the economic partnership agreement under the current conditions but I know for sure that Africa cannot be the winner," says Amadou Ba, who heads the international negotiations division at Senegal’s ministry of commerce.
CARIFORUM divided on liberalisation issue - Economic Partnership Agreement under threat
17-Jul-2007 Jamaica Gleaner
A disagreement among the members of CARIFORUM, which represents the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Dominican Republic, could cause a delay in the group completing negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
Country-based policies are best
16-Jul-2007
Africa’s poorest countries should develop policies to suit their unique circumstances to replace policies imposed on them by their developed country counterparts, former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa has said.
Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs): Responses to the EU offensive against ACP developmental regions
16-Jul-2007 TNI
ACP activists have compiled a wealth of criticisms of the EC initiative to conclude EPAs by end 2007. This paper is concerned to bring these analyses to the attention of European civil society and deepening understandings among activists and governments of the implications of EPAs and, in particular, how they undermine existing efforts towards developmental integration in ACP regions.
Namibia: Communication industry threatened by EPA talks
14-Jul-2007 AllAfrica.com
Between 2004 and 2006, the Naimibian government made more than N$200 million in dividends alone from fixed telecommunication lines, provision of bulk communication infrastructures, and on mobile phone services. Liberalising the sector through the EPA with the EU may poke a hole to its bulging purse. Namibia is also worried that the inclusion of a New Generation clause may hamper the country’s expansion programme into SADC market.
Southern Africa: EU official ’creating rift’
13-Jul-2007 AllAfrica.com
A top European Union official has been seeking to create divisions between South Africa and its neighbours in talks aimed at establishing a free trade deal, African diplomats have alleged.
Lipenga warns on EPA
13-Jul-2007
Discussions to prepare Africa’s position on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union (EU) should not be approached as an academic exercise.