ISDS Case Map
EPAs
Economic Partnership Agreements between the EU and ACP countries (under the Cotonou Agreement)
The Centre for Trade Policy and Development (CTPD) has said the government should halt further negotiations over the Economic Partnership (EPAs) with Europe.
“Negotiating from Weakness” is the title of a paper written by Scott Sinclair of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Basically, the paper argues that in current negotiations with the European Union for a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), Canada is negotiating from a position of weakness and this “is almost always a recipe for disaster”.
Speaking at the 100th anniversary of the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) celebration held in Namibia on Thursday, President Jacob Zuma said that the future of the customs union was "undoubtedly in question", if it could not "pursue the unfinished business of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations as a united group".
Even though Caribbean countries and the EU are supposed to be ‘partners’ under the EPA, the EC has denounced the Sugar Protocol causing Caribbean countries to lose their preferential price for sugar; the EC has agreed a new trade regime for bananas with exports from non African, Caribbean and Pacific countries that will decimate what is left of the banana industry in the Caribbean; and come June 20, the EC will renege on an undertaking to the Caribbean rum industry to help finance restructuring and marketing while at the same time reducing tariffs on competing rum from several Latin American countries.
Former President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania has recently warned East African states to be wary of EPA as it was another Europe form of colonising the continent.
“EPAs are a divide-and-rule tactic being advanced by Europe for selfish interests and Malawi will not sign until all concerns are addressed and I know all these manoeuvres since I was among the pioneers of regional integration,” says President Wa Mutharika.
Reports that the East African Community is close to signing an Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union may be a mirage.
The Economic Partnership Agreement between the East African Community and the European Union will be signed in December this year, John Bosco Kanyangoga, Rwanda's trade expert has said.
So impressed by Namibia are non-government organisations that they suggest mounting mass demonstrations in southern Africa and Brussels, the seat of the European Union Commission.
The European Commission is increasing pressure on the East African Community to sign a free trade agreement despite the revenue losses it would incur for the East African states.
