

EU-ACP EPAs

In 2000, the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, otherwise known as the ACP group, adopted the Cotonou Agreement, which is a framework treaty on trade, aid and political cooperation. It replaced the previous Lomé Convention, providing for a general set of privileged relations between the EU and the ACP countries in matters of market access, technical assistance and other issues. The objective is to facilitate the economic and political integration of the ACP countries into a liberalised world market over the next 20 years.
Under the Cotonou Agreement, the parties agreed to negotiate a separate set of free trade agreements between the EU and the participating ACP countries, tailored to six clusters of countries (West Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa, Central Africa, SADC, the Caribbean and the Pacific). For the EU the EPAs are meant to be comprehensive free trade agreements, laced with rhetoric about "development" and "regional integration". For the EU, comprehensive means not just about the liberalisation of trade in goods, but also about liberalisation of services, investments and government procurement, and the strengthening of intellectual property rights, competition rules, etc.
The negotiations on these EPAs started in September 2002 and were supposed to be completed by 31 December 2007. Hence, a WTO waiver to maintain the EU’s unilateral preferential trade relations with ACP countries until that date was sought and granted. (The EU pushed "WTO compatibility" of the EPAs as a frame for the talks and ACP countries accepted it.) As the talks advanced, ACP governments became caught between a rock and a hard place. They wanted the bits of market access that the EPAs offered, but would have to pay an extremely high price in terms of loss of customs revenue, destabilisation of their economies from the expected flood of EU imports, unclear financial aid commitments from Brussels, reduced political autonomy, etc. Civil society, labour unions and business groups in the ACP countries studied the implications and came out with vigorous campaigns to stop the signing of the EPAs.
The 31 December 2007 deadline for the EPAs to be signed came and went in a flurry of drama. Only the Caribbean region concluded negotiations on a comprehensive EPA before the deadline. A number of other states — including Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire — initialled bilateral interim EPAs on goods only, to secure the continuation of their exports. Others, like Senegal, swore they would not sign until “development concerns” were seriously taken on board. Negotiations then continued to revise the interim EPAs which appeared to contain many problematic provisions; and to arrive at regional agreements. In order to put pressure on the negotiations, the EU imposed a new deadline: (non-LDC, least developed country) ACP countries which had initialled or signed (interim) EPAs but did not ratify or start to implement these agreements before 1.1.2014 would lose their preferential market access to the EU. As a result of this threat, regional EPAs were initialled in the summer of 2014 in West, East and Southern Africa. However, the European Commission warned the three regions that it would withdraw preferential market access if these regional EPAs would not be ratified within two years. In the summer of 2016 the European Commission tabled the legal instruments to give effect to this threat on 1 October 2016. All targeted (non-LDC) countries (Ghana, Ivory Coast, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Kenya) surrendered and “ratified”.
West African countries approved a regional EPA on 10 July 2014 but the agreement is yet to be signed by the Gambia, Mauretania and Nigeria (where it faces sustained opposition). Under pressure of the European Commission’s 2016 ultimatum, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana therefore decided in August 2016 to ratify their old and outdated 2007 agreement. The Cote d’Ivoire interim EPA has been applied since 8 September 2016, while the Ghana interim EPA still has to be approved by the European Parliament.
The East African Community (or EAC) EPA was supposed to be signed in July 2016 but Tanzania announced that is was not ready to sign, as it wanted to further examine the effects of the EPA especially in the light of a possible Brexit. Under pressure from the EU, Kenya, the only non-LDC in the region, decided to sign and ratify the EPA on its own. Rwanda signed as well.
In Southern African, six member countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), namely Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland, signed the regional EPA that they had initialled in 2014. The European Parliament approved it on 14 September 2016. Provisional implementation started on 10 October 2016.
In all other ACP regions (except the Caribbean) regional EPA negotiations failed completely: as a result number of countries ratified or started to provisionally apply separate 2007 interim EPAs (most of them under pressure of the EU’s 2015 ultimatum): Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, Fiji.
Nevertheless, only 12 African countries are implementing an EPA, and 12 others have no EPA at all. In the Pacific only 2 out of the 14 countries have an EPA.
Below is an overview of the EPA’s state of play as of 14 October 2016 (courtesy of Marc Maes):
EU-ACP sub-group | status of agreement |
---|---|
Caribbean | • full EPA initialed in Dec 2007 and signed in October 2008 (and December 2009 by Haiti) and approved by the European Parliament (March 2009). Ratification still pending in most Caribbean and EU states. Caribbean countries experience difficulties with the implementation of the EPA. Haïti does not apply the EPA. |
Central Africa | • interim EPA initialled (Dec 2007) and signed by Cameroon only (January 2009), approved by the European Parliament (June 2013), ratified by Cameroon (August 2016) |
West Africa | • interim EPA initialled by Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana only (Dec 2007) |
• this interim EPA signed by Côte d’Ivoire (Nov 2008) and approved by the European Parliament (March 2009) | |
• Regional EPA (that would replace two interim EPAs) initialed in July 2016. 13 countries have signed this EPA; Nigeria, the Gambia and Mauritania have not | |
• interim EPA ratified by Côte d’Ivoire in August 2016 and applied since 8 September 2016 | |
• interim EPA signed and ratified by Ghana (Aug 2016) | |
East and Southern Africa (ESA) | This region originally comprised 16 countries, but fell apart at the end of 2007. Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Soudan dropped out of the process; the EAC initialled a seperate regional interim EPA (see below); so that only the following countries remained: Zimbabwe, Seychelles, Mauritius, Comoros, Madagascar and Zambia. These initialed the same EPA text (Nov-Dec 2007) but only Zimbabwe, Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar signed (August 2009). Zimbabwe, Seychelles and Madagascar have in the meantime ratified the agreement while Mauritius has notified provisional implementation. The European Parliament has approved this interim EPA in January 2013. Mauritius signed in 2015 the Joint Undertaking on Administrative Cooperation for the Implementation of the Cumulation Provisions contained in the EPA |
East Africa | • regional interim EPA initialled by East African Community members Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda (Nov 2007) |
• revised and more complete regional EPA initialed in October 2014 | |
• Kenya and Rwanda signed this EPA in September 2016, Kenya also ratified it | |
Southern Africa | • regional interim EPA initialled by Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Mozambique (Nov-Dec 2007) and signed by Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique only (June 2009) |
• revised and more complete regional EPA initialled on 15 July 2014; signed by Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Mozambique and South Africa on 10 June 2016 and ratified by all except Mozambique; ratified by the European Parliament on 14 September 2016; provisionally applied since 10 October 2016 | |
• Angola has dropped out of the process but has an option to join the agreement in the future | |
Pacific | • interim EPA initialed by Papua New Guinea and Fiji only (Nov 2007). Signed (July 2009) and ratified (February 2011) by Papua New Guinea; signed by Fiji (Dec 2009) and provisionally applied since July 2014 |
• 12 countries have not initialled anything yet |
last update: October 2016
Articles
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29-May-2017 All Africa Nigeria’s trade dilemma
To survive and grow its economy, Nigeria’s best option might be to protect its infant industries and grow them to a point where it can comfortably play on the grand waters of international trade. Until then, the EPA might be a right step in the wrong direction. -
26-May-2017 SOL Les effets des APE sur les agricultures des pays ACP concernés
La première remarque est que les produits agricoles ont été à l’origine des Accords de Partenariat Economique et restent leur pierre d’achoppement. Les APE ne feront qu’aggraver les 3 défis qui pèsent déjà sur les agricultures des pays ACP. -
22-May-2017 Xinhua EAC not to force members to sign EU trade deal
Leaders of the East African Community (EAC) agreed not to force member states to sign the EAC-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). -
15-May-2017 Mauriweb La Mauritanie, le Nigéria et la Gambie appelés à ratifier l’accord de partenariat économique avec l’Union européenne
L’ambassadeur de l’Union européenne en Côte d’Ivoire a invité les pays tels que la Mauritanie, le Nigéria et la Gambie à ratifier l’accord de partenariat économique. -
15-May-2017 The East African European Union woos Tanzania to sign trade deal
The European Union has invited the government of Tanzania for dialogue over the Economic Partnership Agreement impasse that has threatened to derail the trade pact between the bloc and the East African Community member countries. -
2-May-2017 The Nation MAN cautions Fed Govt on EPA
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has again cautioned the Federal Government to be wary of the Economic Community of West African States – European Union Economic Partnership Agreement. -
25-Apr-2017 SOL L’énorme dumping des produits laitiers extra-UE et vers les APE d’AO, SADC, CEMAC et EAC en 2016
L’UE continue les pressions sur les pays ACP (Afrique, Caraïbes, Pacifique) pour qu’ils signent et mettent en oeuvre des APE qui seraient destructeurs pour ces pays. -
25-Apr-2017 SOL The huge dumping of extra-EU exports of dairy products and to the EPAs of West Africa, SADC, CEMAC and EAC in 2016
The EU has been pressuring the ACP countries (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) to sign and implement EPAs that would be destructive for these countries. -
25-Apr-2017 Sud Quotidien «L’Afrique doit compter d’abord sur son propre marché intérieur»
Une zone de libre échange ne peut être une politique qui favorise l’industrialisation de l’Afrique. Et, le vrai problème de l’Afrique, c’est le manque d’industrialisation, selon El Hadji Alioune Diouf, expert en commerce international. -
24-Apr-2017 All Africa East Africa: UN body warns region against signing trade deal with EU
The report says that if the EPA is signed, local industries will struggle to withstand competitive pressures from EU firms, while the region will be stuck in its position as a low value-added commodity exporter. -
19-Apr-2017 EurActiv MEPs in Ghana and Ivory Coast to monitor EPA implementation
MEPs from the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee are in West Africa this week, to monitor the implementation of Economic Partnership Agreements. -
19-Apr-2017 EurActiv En Afrique, des eurodéputés s’interrogent sur les accords de partenariat
La commission commerce international est en Afrique de l’Ouest pour surveiller la mise en application des Accords de partenariat économique. -
12-Apr-2017 ACP Secretariat ACP countries to negotiate as a unified entity with EU
Seventy-nine countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific are preparing to negotiate a major partnership framework with the European Union which will set directions for trade relations. -
12-Apr-2017 African Business Magazine EU-Tanzania seal $205m investment deal
The two sides have managed to separate the grant from their long-running dispute over the proposed Economic Partnership Agreement, media have been told. -
10-Apr-2017 Nation News EPA plan to be reset
Barbados is resetting its implementation strategy of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union as Britain prepares to exit the EU. -
6-Apr-2017 Abidjan.net Coopération : début des travaux de mise en œuvre de l’accord de partenariat économique (APE) intérimaire entre l’UE et la Côte d’Ivoire
Le comité de pilotage de la signature de l’Accord de Partenariat Economique intérimaire entre l’UE et la Côte d’Ivoire a entamé les travaux relatifs à la mise en œuvre dudit accord. -
1-Apr-2017 The Mint “The most remarkable rejection of free trade you’ve never heard of”
Africans are insisting on actual economic development which is leaving European trade negotiators exasperated. Rick Rowden explains why their stand is historic and right. -
25-Mar-2017 SOL SOL comments to the EU delegation to SA’ press release of 16 March 2017
South African poultry producers are fully justified to accuse the EU of dumping. -
24-Mar-2017 SOL Subventions aux exportations de produits céréaliers de l’UE à l’Afrique de l’Ouest en 2015 et 2016
L’Accord de partenariat économique d’Afrique de l’Ouest a prévu de réduire à 0 le droit de douane sur les importations de céréales hors riz venant de l’Union européenne dès le début de la libéralisation. -
24-Mar-2017 SOL The subsidies to the EU exports of cereal products to West Africa in 2015 and 2016
The EU-West Africa’s Economic Partnership Agreement has planned to reduce to 0 the import duty on non-rice cereal imports from the European Union at the beginning of the liberalization period.
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ACP Secretariat
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Africa-Europe: What alternatives?
A meeting of networks, researchers, NGOs and civil society groups in Lisbon, 7-9 December 2007 -
APE-CEDEAO
Site web de la CEDEAO sur l’APE Afrique de l’Ouest-Union Européenne -
EPA Monitoring
The website seeks to provide regular updates on developments in ACP-EU agro-food sector trade and investment relations which could give rise to policy challenges in the context of the development of future relations between African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and the European Union (EU). -
EurActiv on EPAs
EurActiv articles on the Economic Partnership Agreeements -
European Commission webpage on EPA negotiations
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Forum Citoyen Afrique-UE
Les communautés et les peuples africains s’érigent en force de proposition pour relever les nombreux défis auxquels l’Afrique est confrontée. -
PAPDA
Plateforme Haïtienne de Plaidoyer pour un Développement Alternatif, en lutte contre les APE -
The EPA Exposed
Under the EPAs we are about to become the consumers to a master-supplier in a master servant relationship. -
tralac
tralac is a capacity-building organisation developing trade-related capacity in east and southern Africa.