ISDS Case Map
SADC
Southern Africa Development Cooperation
One of the underlying principles of the Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Southern African Development Community is that it should complement and support regional integration initiatives. However, the signing of the Interim EPA by some member states, and not by others, has generated uncertainty within the region.
It seems the problems emanating from the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) are far from over, as SA and EU have started exchanging strong ‘words’.
Now, Africans are hitting back at Europe
The European Union signed an interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) on 4 June 2009 with Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. Mozambique has signalled its intention to sign this agreement in the near future, but its trade minister was unable to come to Brussels today.
High-level talks at a Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) meeting in Gaborone last week failed to produce an agreement on the signing of the interim economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the European Union.
The European Union says it looks forward to concluding an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Namibia and other countries in the SADC-EPA region.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is celebrating the rejection of European Union-SADC Interim Economic Partnership Agreement (IEPA) negotiations by the governments of South Africa and Angola and is mobilising for a political intervention in the whole agreement negotiations.
The signing of a finalized economic partnership agreement (EPA) between the European Union and southern African countries seems imminent-despite regional trade fragmentation remaining a danger.
Twenty six African countries seeking to merge their economies into a single trading bloc that controls a combined wealth of $ 624m and a market of 527m people moved to a definitive stage after their leaders approved plans to establish a free trade area early this week.
The European Union is likely to move towards the official signing of an interim economic partnership agreement, known as an EPA, with countries of the Southern African Development Community that will exclude South Africa.
