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EPAs

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?
BIO-IPR: Draft EU-Eastern and Southern Africa EPA
27-Sep-2006 GRAIN
A recent draft of the EPA between the EU and 16 Eastern and Southern Africa countries gives a taste of what these treaties might spell out in terms of rights to local biodiversity and traditional knowledge.
Kenya: Lobby groups oppose signing of trade agreement with EU
27-Sep-2006 AllAfrica.com
Civil societies have asked the Government not to sign any agreement that emerges from current talks with European Union. The non-governmental organisations accused the EU of pursuing its own agenda, which does not match Kenya’s or any other African country’s.
Top EU officials arrive in Mombasa to salvage trade talks
27-Sep-2006 Kenya Times
Two key European Unions heads of trade and development yesterday jetted into Mombasa to thwart a bid by Eastern and Southern Africa ( ESA) countries to scatter the ongoing negotiations between the two trading blocs.
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.
East Africa: African states warn EU on trade talks
26-Sep-2006 AllAfrica.com
Trade talks between European Union and Eastern and Southern Africa countries are set to be stormy as ESA countries warned the EU against reneging on its earlier promises.
Kenya urged to look for trade alternative
26-Sep-2006 Capital FM
Kenya Association of Manufacturers CEO Betty Maina said negotiators in the Economic Partnership Agreement, EPA, are not in-sync and the agreement might not be signed by the end of next year.
Draft EU-ESA EPA (August 2006)
23-Sep-2006
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.
Private sector urged to speak up
13-Sep-2006
A national call has gone out to the Barbados private sector, asking it to speak out as free trade negotiations between the region and the European Union (EU) near the final phase.
COMESA-EU pact to open up more markets
9-Sep-2006
The Common Market for East and Central African (COMESA) states have begun fresh negotiations for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) in a bid to expand domestic markets through strategic trade liberalisation.
Cape Verde wants to negotiate economic partnership with EU outside of ECOWAS
5-Sep-2006 MacauHub
The government of Cape Verde said Monday that it had abandoned the agreement established as part of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and plans to negotiate directly with the European Union (EU) for an economic partnership agreement.
Trade furore: Pacific solidarity thrown into disarray
4-Sep-2006 Islands Business
Concerns are growing that the key bargaining chip for the islands of the Pacific with the European Union (EU) is fast eroding. This follows a decision by the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati and the Solomon Islands to continue their bilateral fisheries agreements with Europe despite a collective decision for the Pacific to negotiate as a group.
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.
Impasses probables dans les négociations internationales : Le fameux Plan B du ministre «Decroix»
22-Aug-2006 Le Quotidien
Le Sénégal ne voit plus, semble-t-il, le besoin de poursuivre les négociations commerciales internationales si les choses n’évoluent pas.
SADC Peoples Summit declaration
21-Aug-2006
We are particularly concerned that the EU’s plan for so-called Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA’s) with our countries is having the effect of splitting SADC into two groups and undermining the potential for our future co-ordinated regional programmes for mutual economic and social development.
Malawian farmers union wary of EU trade deal
15-Aug-2006
Farmers in Malawi have warned government to tread carefully before endorsing the European Union’s Economic Partnership Agreement, saying signing the deal will put the country’s agricultural products at the risk of not finding the international market.