Exploring ACP responses to the EU proposal for Regional Economic Partnership Agreements

In their negotiating mandate for a successor agreement to the Lomé IV Convention, the ACP strongly adhere to a status quo position on trade, i.e. keeping the current preferential system. While this may be the best short-term option for tactical purposes, it may suffer from a lack of realism in the long-term. Alternative positions could be explored, including ways to accommodate EU proposals for free-trade agreements with ACP regions. This Brief brings together the main conclusions of a two-day seminar, in which ACP and European experts — and for the first time ACP regional bodies — met with the ACP Secretariat and Ambassadors to reflect on these issues.