EAC, EPA pacts for November 2010
East African Business Week
EAC, EPA pacts for November 2010
By David Muwanga
16 June 2010
KAMPALA, UGANDA: Signing of the East African Community (EAC) Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) agreements that were expected to be signed in June have been postponed to November this year after the negotiations are concluded.
This was during the third negotiations session between the East African Community (EAC) partner states and the European Commission (EC) on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) ended last week at the Mlimani City Conference Centre in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to consider outstanding issues in the Framework Agreement.
There remained areas where further discussions are required in order to reach consensus.
These include a number of articles where there is consensus on the wording but divergence on whether they should be incorporated into the Framework Economic Partnership Agreements (FEPA) or the Comprehensive EPA.
"The other category of divergence is on articles where consensus has not been reached on the reformulations.
Both parties reiterated their commitment to work together to resolve the divergences," according to a communique issued after the meeting.
It revealed that both parties agreed to reach an agreement by the end of November 2010, prior to the African Union, European Union (AU/EU) Summit.
Tanzania’s Minister for Industry, Trade and Marketing Dr. Mary Nagu said the outstanding issues were economic and development cooperation, export taxes, and most favoured nation treatment (MFN) clauses.
