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Media Brief: Economic Partnership Agreements

ECDPM would like to invite you to a media briefing with our expert San Bilal, Head of the Economic Transformation and Trade programme and an expert in the field of EPAs.

On 1st October, the free trade talks between Europe and Africa will conclude. The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) give various regional groups in Africa better access to European markets. The negotiations have taken place over the last decade, and have often been a contentious issue between the EU and Africa.

Recently West Africa (ECOWAS) and South Africa (SADC) have agreed on their EPAs, however the East African Community (EAC) have not yet signed. This would mean Kenya would lose preferential access to EU markets if the EAC don’t agree in time.

ECDPM has worked on the issues of EPAs since their inception. We have written a number of key documents on these issues.

ECDPM Feature articles

ECOWAS and SADC Economic Partnership Agreement: A Comparative Analysis

ECOWAS will liberalise 75% of its tariff lines, based on its common external tariff, over a period of 20 years while the SADC EPA group is expected to liberalise 80% of its trade with the EU.

Overview of EPA updates

Every month, GREAT Insights provides you with ECDPM’s EPA (Economic Partnership Agreement) update.

Trade Talks Set to Disrupt Africa-Europe Relations and Poison the Upcoming Africa-EU Summit

(From 2013)

Talks towards free trade between the European Union (EU) and Sub-Saharan African countries could seriously sour the political relations between the two continents and potentially jeopardize their Summit next April 2014.

To arrange for a separate interview or for more information, please contact ECDPM’s Communications Officer, Emily Barker on +32 (0)2 237 43 81 or +32 (0)474 12 34 73 or eb@ecdpm.org