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On 27 September 2002, the European Union and the ACP countries officially opened negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) in Brussels. These negotiations, which are to take place over five years, are aimed at redefining the trade regime between the two groups of countries. They are conducted in two phases. The first phase is conducted at "All-ACP"-EU level and takes on board cross-cutting themes of interest to all parties concerned, mainly: legal matters, the development "dimension" of the EPAs, Agriculture and Fisheries agreements, services, market access and trade-related matters. The Second phase is conducted at ACP national and regional level with spotlight on specific commitments.
Six sub-regional groupings of the ACP have now entered into Phase 2 of the negotiations with the EU. The outcome of the negotiations will be a series of new Free Trade Agreements (FTA) replacing the Lomé system of preferential access to the European market for the ACP from 2008. The six sub-regions are:
- West Africa (Economic Community of West Africa ECOWAS + Mauritania);
- Central Africa (Communauté Economique et Monétaire de l'Afrique Centrale or CEMAC + São Tomé and Príncipe);
- Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA members); the Southern African Development Community (SADC: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Tanzania + South Africa as an observer);
- Caribbean or CARIFORUM (these include the 14 ACP members of the Caribbean Community and the Dominican Republic); and
- the Pacific.
The EPAs should serve as instruments of development that contribute to the promotion of gradual and smooth integration of the ACP states in world economy while respecting their political options and development priorities, promoting thereby their sustainable development and contributing to the eradication of poverty in the ACP states and not an end in themselves.
In this context, the European and ACP parties agreed that the EPAs contribute directly to the development of the ACP states while helping them to expand their markets and improving the predictability and transparency of the legal framework governing trade, creating thereby suitable conditions for investment growth and the mobilization of private sector initiatives in order to improve the supply capacity of the ACP States. To this end, the EPAs should take account of the economic, social, environmental and structural constraints specific to each ACP state and region concerned, as well as their capacity to adapt their economies to the EPA process. The EPAs should also take on board the development guidelines of the countries and regions concerned. Besides, they should be economically and socially sustainable.
The task facing the protagonists looks likely to be difficult given the many issues and respective interests to be addressed. These negotiations will take place in an international context characterised by increased liberalisation. Some consider that EPAs have the potential to offer the ACP countries good opportunities. Others foresee much soul-searching when it comes to ensuring an improvement over the former system in terms of development prospects for the ACP countries.
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