What went wrong with the EPAs?

What went wrong with the Economic Partnership Agreements between Africa and the EU? ECDPM's San Bilal talks to Clem Silverman about the ongoing negotiations and moving beyond the technical issues to a more political dialogue.





After over ten years of negotiations, the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are due to be completed over the next few months. Failure to do so by October 2014 - a deadline unilaterally set by the EU - will mean that some African countries will lose their preferential access to the European market.

It is time to take more explicit account of the political nature and interests behind this EPA process, so as to encourage more strategic diplomacy, San Bilal says.

ECDPM released two papers on EPAs: Trade Talks Set to Disrupt Africa-Europe Relations and Poison the Upcoming Africa-EU Summit and What would it take to make an EPA economically and politically feasible for Europe and Africa?

See our GREAT insights magazine for the latest update on EPAs.