Negotiating Economic Partnership Agreements – Agriculture

The aim of this InBrief series is to identify the key issues at stake within the various chapters of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) being negotiated between the European Union and six African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regional groupings. Each InBrief addresses one chapter, offering an overview of the trade or trade-related provisions, highlighting their relevance for the ACP and identifying a range of policy options for the negotiations.

Under the Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA), signed in 2000 by the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP), current non-reciprocal trade preferences are to be replaced by Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). One of the main features of these EPAs, which are intended to play their part in sustainable development and poverty reduction, is that they place trade between the ACP regions and the EU on a more reciprocal footing. In view of its socio-economic importance for the ACP countries and the share of trade between the ACP and the EU for which it accounts, agriculture is a key sector in the EPA negotiations. The scope of these negotiations is also to be seen in the broader context of the agricultural negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the reform of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) (section 1).