On March 23rd the EC posted a review of the state of play in the EPA negotiations across the various ACP regions. It stressed that the interim EPAs which have been agreed ‘must now be signed in order to safeguard preferences and move forward with talks on full EPAs’, and also stressed the importance of the interim EPAs as stop-gap measures for maintaining existing ACP trade preferences in the context of the lapsing of the WTO Cotonou waiver. The review of the situation in the Caribbean highlighted that the focus was now on implementing the comprehensive EPA signed.
In central Africa the EC review pointed out that only one of the eight countries involved (five of which are LDCs) had initialled or signed an interim EPA. In the ESA region it highlighted the conclusion of different EPA agreements, one involving the five countries of the East African Community (four of which are LDCs) and six being concluded bilaterally (two of which were concluded with LDCs). In the SADC EPA region it pointed out that five of the seven countries involved had initialled an interim EPA. In west Africa it noted that two of the 16 countries involved in the EPA negotiations had initialled or signed an interim EPA, while one country, Nigeria, had reverted to standard GSP trade treatment. In the Pacific it was noted that two of 14 governments involved in the EPA negotiations had initialled interim EPAs. In all of these regions, negotiations at the regional level were considered to be ongoing.
The ICTSD reports that on March 25th the European Parliament voted to support an interim EPA with Côte d’Ivoire and adopted resolutions supporting the ongoing negotiation process in other regions. Addressing the Parliament, Trade Commissioner Ashton stated, ‘I believe that these are good agreements that support economic development and integration in the ACP and provide stability in these economically turbulent times’.
EC, March 23rd 2009
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2009/march/tradoc_142689.pdf
Europa Press Releases Rapid, Speech by Trade Commissioner Ashton, SPEECH/09/139, March 23rd 2009
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/09/139&am...
Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest, Vol. 13, No. 11, March 25th 2009
http://ictsd.net/i/news/bridgesweekly/43823/
A notable feature of the EC review is the implicit recognition that in Africa only 19 sub-Saharan governments have initialled interim EPAs. 29 sub-Saharan African governments have so far declined to initial an interim EPA, including some of the largest, most dynamic and populous countries in sub-Saharan Africa (such as South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Overall, governments representing 33% of the population of sub-Saharan African countries have initialled interim EPAs, while governments representing 67% of the sub-Saharan African population have so far declined to initial interim EPAs. In terms therefore of establishing a long-term framework for EU-Africa trade relations in the agricultural sector, the process of EPA negotiations still has a long way to go.
While the European Parliament voted to approve the Caribbean, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire agreements, concerns remain that greater flexibility is needed in resolving contentious issues in the interim EPAs, concerns that were reflected in the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary discussions in Prague on April 8th 2009. It remains to be seen whether in dealing with the SADC EPA configuration the EC will show sufficient flexibility to ensure that any agreement signed encompasses the vast majority of the population of the region, not only a small minority: to do this, it needs to effectively engage with the dominant regional economy, South Africa. Without South Africa, any SADC-EU agreement will be largely an empty shell, given the implementation problems which will arise in the SACU context.