First EU Economic Partnership Agreement with an African Region becomes a reality

May 14.05.2012, XNUMX Brussels - The trade and development agreement that the EU concluded with the four states of Eastern and Southern Africa Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles and Zimbabwe takes effect today.

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said: "From today, our first interim Economic Partnership Agreement with an African region will apply. This is great news, and the negotiators and all those involved on all sides deserve my appreciation for their work. With this trade agreement, we hope to contribute to the development of our partners in Eastern and Southern Africa and to create better, lasting business opportunities. "

The Interim Economic Partnership Agreement gives Mauritius, Madagascar, the Seychelles and Zimbabwe duty-free and quota-free market access for exports to the EU. These countries, in turn, will gradually open their markets to European exports over the next 15 years, with the exception of certain products that they classify as sensitive. The agreement also contains provisions on rules of origin, development cooperation, fisheries, trade protection measures and dispute settlement. For the four countries it therefore represents an improvement in the unilateral freedom from customs duties and quotas that they have already enjoyed, as it promotes regional integration and emphasizes a partnership approach in relation to the EU. Regional integration brings economic and political advantages that individual countries cannot achieve on their own.

At the end of 2007, the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Zambia and Zimbabwe concluded an interim economic partnership agreement with the EU. Finally, four of them (Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and Zimbabwe) signed the agreement in August 2009 in Mauritius. These four countries have now begun and completed ratification steps or have notified the application so that the agreement can be applied as of today. Once ratified by all Parties, including all EU Member States, the Agreement will enter into force officially.

background objects

2000, on the one hand, and the EU, on the other hand, with the Cotonou Agreement, pave the way for more ambitious trade and development relations involving not only trade in goods, but also services, trade-related regulation and trade Development cooperation. Strengthening regional integration and creating more efficient regional markets with predictable and stable rules are the cornerstones of this concept. These new agreements should be underpinned by EU development cooperation in order to strengthen the institutional capacities and production capacities of the ACP countries and support necessary adjustment processes.

Negotiations for such comprehensive trade and development agreements as foreseen in the Cotonou Agreement began in 2002; However, as the Cotonou trade arrangements approached the end of December 31, 2007, it became clear that not all ACP regions would be able to conclude negotiations by then.

As a result, a number of interim agreements have been concluded to minimize potential trade disruption for the ACP partner countries following the expiry of the Cotonou trade regime while continuing to move towards comprehensive regional Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). While the interim agreement went through the permitting process in each country, countries remained free of duty and quota free access to the EU market.

The Interim Economic Partnership Agreement with Madagascar, Mauritius, the Seychelles and Zimbabwe is therefore the cornerstone for a broader and wider agreement on which the EU and the whole region of eastern and southern Africa are currently negotiating. The negotiations on a comprehensive EPA were resumed at the beginning of 2008 with all the countries of eastern and southern Africa, including those that had not joined the interim EPA (Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Comoros, Malawi, Zambia and Sudan). The common objective of these negotiations is a regional agreement that supports sustainable development and promotes regional integration. A comprehensive EPA could include areas beyond the movement of goods: services and investment, as well as trade-related areas such as sustainable development, competition and trade facilitation.

trade figures

Total EU imports from the four countries of eastern and southern Africa in 2011 amounted to EUR 2 billion. Processed tuna, coffee, cane sugar, textiles, tobacco, cut flowers and metals were mainly imported. The value of EU exports to these four countries was EUR 1,7 billion in the same year; these were primarily machines, vehicles, pharmaceuticals and chemicals.

EPA negotiations with other ACP regions

The EPA negotiations with other African regions have intensified over the past year. Recently, technical progress has been made with the East African Community and West Africa. With sufficient political will and commitment, there is a good chance of reaching an agreement with many African regions in the course of 2012. In the Caribbean and the Pacific, the EU and its partners in the Cariforum and Papua New Guinea are concentrating on implementing the existing agreements that have been in effect since December 29, 2008 and December 29, 2009, respectively.

Further information:

EU trade relations with eastern and southern Africa

Information sheet on the interim EPA with Eastern and Southern Africa:

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2012/march/tradoc_149213.pdf

Text of the interim EPA:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:L:2012:111:SOM:DE:HTML

(europa press release)

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