ISDS Case Map
EPAs
Economic Partnership Agreements between the EU and ACP countries (under the Cotonou Agreement)
Kenya's terms of trade in the international market may change for the worse following its recent removal from the list of the world's Least Developed Countries, it has emerged.
African governments, policy analysts, regional economic groups and civil society organizations are increasingly speaking with one voice: the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) now being hammered out between Europe and the ACP countries must be significantly modified to safeguard those countries' prospects for development.
With barely five months to go before the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) come into force, it is still unclear whether agreements in the negotiations will be reached.
As Africa's leaders met in Accra, Ghana, last week to consider ways of consolidating continental unity through increased trade, pertinent questions were being raised over the impact that a new trade arrangement between the European Union and the 75-member ACP trading bloc will have on regional integration.
"These are not free trade agreements in the way anyone understand them. They are development tools, trade and Aid working together to deliver sustainable growth"
Peter Mandelson, EU Trade Commissioner. The above is one of the high profiled empty speeches, characteristic feature of EU trade diplomacy. When Mandelson made the above speech, I came to the conclusion that I have witnessed the highest degree of hypocrisy since I came into this planet earth.
Uganda's flower industry needs government incentives and preferential European Union (EU) access to succeed, say members of the east African nation's floricultural sector.
Sustainability and trade barriers in biofuels could be addressed through new economic partnership agreements (EPAs), which are currently being negotiated with countries from the African, Caribbean and Pacific bloc. “New EPAs and the EDF will provide a framework for action on trade in biofuels,” a spokesman for the European development commissioner said. “From 2008 onwards this issue will become much more visible.”
Import surges of tomato paste and chicken parts already have severe impact on the ability of Ghanaian peasant farmers to feed their families. Cuts in the levels of import tariffs on these products, through an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU, are likely to cause further violations of their Human Right to adequate Food.
OECS Trade Ministers accommodated the European Commission's principal negotiator for the Economic Partnership Agreement, Karl Falkenburg on Wednesday.
"I do not know if a winner will emerge from the signing of the economic partnership agreement under the current conditions but I know for sure that Africa cannot be the winner," says Amadou Ba, who heads the international negotiations division at Senegal's ministry of commerce.
