ISDS Case Map
Africa
Africa is asking its team of trade negotiators working on the Economic Partnership Agreement to focus on economic development before deciding on opening up markets to the European Union.
The failure by the European Union on the one hand and African, Caribbean and Pacific nations on the other to conclude their Economic Partnership Agreements by July 31 this year, the agreed deadline, does not augur well for trade between the two sides.
New Era talked to four Members of the European Parliament regarding Europe’s position on the ongoing scramble for Africa’s riches.
The European Union does not have an offensive commercial interest in the Economic Partnership Agreement. Rather, it is part of its strategic plan and policy to capture the African market, the Special Adviser to the President of NEPAD has said.
Right now, the EU's EPAs are devastating Africa's regional economic blocs through divide-and-conquer, reversing the resistance we saw from African countries a year ago.
On 19 May, US Trade Representative Ronald Kirk and Angola Minister of External Affairs Assunção Afonso de Sousa dos Anjos signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) that will provide a forum to address trade issues and help enhance trade and investment relations between the United States and Angola.
The European Union is coercing some West African governments into allowing European-based fishing companies to deplete West Africa's fishing stocks in a new "food colonialism" that is now taking place between rich and poor countries around the world, according to British author George Monbiot.
Internal email communication by DG Trade obtained by
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) unveils how the EU Commission has actively
orchestrated African business support for its Economic Partnership Agreements
(EPAs) with the countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. MEPs will vote
on the EPA negotiations at their sitting in Strasbourg today and tomorrow.
The value of the preferences African countries will reap from an EPA will essentially become nil in about 5 to 10 years.
Switzerland-based intergovernmental organisation, South Centre, has warned Nigeria and other African nations that the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) being proposed by the European Union (EU) will eliminate the capacity of African nations to industrialise within five to 10 years of signing the agreement.
