Africa and the Economic Partnership Agreement
Negotiations between the European Union (EU) and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP) go back several decades ago and are based on economic and trade cooperation relations. The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) come in following the Lome convention (Togo) initialed in 1975 and the Cotonou agreement (Benin) signed in 2000. Agreements signed between ACP countries and the EU included the extension of «non reciprocal trade preferences» in accordance with previous conventions. These provisions are meant to lift trade tariff barriers, namely: customs duties for ACP exports while letting ACP countries maintain custom duties on their imports from the EU. This non-reciprocal trade ended on the 1st of October 2014 following an extension that had already been carried out in 2007.
The objective of these economic partnership agreements is to showcase regional markets, as well as grant these developing countries access to European goods and services. This is notably the reason why developing countries are reticent, given that they already had access to the European market without having to open their own markets, which would lead to a loss of fiscal revenue and the coming of more competitive or subsidized products as in the area of agriculture. That is notably the cause of the failure of certain negotiations or their extensions.
In 2007, countries of the Eastern and Southern regions of Africa (AFOA) signed an interim economic partnership agreement with the European Union. Seven years later in 2014, interim agreements were signed between the European Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC). Thus in 2015, only the Central African area had not signed an interim agreement at regional level.
Cameroon then had to sign an interim agreement in an isolated manner on 28 July 2014, which entered into force in August 2014. A new stage in the implementation of the said agreement was concluded in August 2016, notably with the signing of the implementing decree by the President of Cameroon, HE Paul BIYA. The said agreement provides for the suppression of 80 % of custom duties on European products over a period of 15 years. In June 2016, an economic partnership agreement was signed between the European Union and SADC countries.
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Central Africa
(CEMAC)
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East Africa
(EAC)
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West Africa
(ECOWAS)
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Southern and Eastern Africa
(AFOA)
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Southern Africa
(SADC)
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Caribbean
(Caribbean)
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Pacific
(Pacific)
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One State
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Five States
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Sixteen States
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Four States
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Six States
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Fifteen States
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Two States
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Products group : Products of group 1 Products of group 2
Export guide to the EU market
The European Commission has launched a new Trade Helpdesk service, with the aim of helping companies wishing to export / import to the European Union.
The following are detailed in this database: European market, trade agreements, statistics, import duties, product conditions and regulations, internal taxes.
