ISDS Case Map
EPAs
Economic Partnership Agreements between the EU and ACP countries (under the Cotonou Agreement)
Europe is undermining its own efforts to strengthen African agriculture by foisting free trade on the continent, a Ghanaian farm leader has complained.
East African Ministers of Trade on Friday agreed to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPAs) with the European Union as a bloc before embarking on detailed negotiations with the Eastern and Southern Africa states.
The European Union needs to scale down its ambitions for accessing the service sector in southern Africa as it negotiates an economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the region, said South Africa's deputy trade minister Rob Davies.
Caribbean Community leaders may try to reinstate the EU sugar protocol through an international court.
The Association of Ghana Industry (AGI) has added its voice to the clarion cry on African governments not to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) or risk killing local industries.
The European Union and countries in the Caribbean failed to agree on a new trade and investment deal in two days of talks that ended on Friday. EU officials had expected the Caribbean to become the first of the ACP regions to agree to a new deal.
West Africa will miss a Dec. 31 deadline to sign a new trade partnership with the European Union and hopes to keep its preferential commercial privileges for up to two years while it negotiates, a West African official said.
The European Union and Pacific countries agreed on Tuesday to seek an interim new trade deal, to enter into force on 1 January, while they continue negotiating an EPA by end of 2008.
Tempers flare as Caricom trade negotiators and the European Commission work with an October 15 deadline to initial an EU-Caribbean EPA
Last week, the EU unilaterally renounced a 32-year sugar protocol that had guaranteed fixed quotas and prices for ACP countries, with no clear indications of how exactly sugar will be treated in the new EPAs.
