ISDS Case Map
EAC
Ministers from 26 African countries are meeting in Kampala in another attempt to see through overdue negotiations on the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA).
A paltry eight African have so far ratified the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) more than two years after it was launched in Egypt, raising fears of a failed continental effort to create an expanded trade barrier free market.
Leaders of the East African Community (EAC) agreed not to force member states to sign the EAC-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
Plans to establish a single market for the 26 African countries in the Eastern and Southern African region – known as the tripartite free trade area (TFTA) – could be overly ambitious.
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.
The EU has been pressuring the ACP countries (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) to sign and implement EPAs that would be destructive for these countries.
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.
Africans are insisting on actual economic development which is leaving European trade negotiators exasperated. Rick Rowden explains why their stand is historic and right.
Tanzania is reluctant to sign and ratify the EPA raising a number of issues including the implications of the EPA on EAC’s development in general and industrialisation in particular.
The East African Community is once again facing a delicate diplomatic situation as it seems now more than ever that, after protracted negotiations, member states may have to just agree to disagree on the Economic Partnership Agreement.
