EPA Negotiations: Where do we stand? - East and Southern Africa - last update : July 2011

State of play

Two interim agreements have been initialled in the Eastern and Southern African region, an EAC-EU framework agreement (with a common market access offer) and an ESA-EU framework agreement (comprising separate national tariff offers and exclusion lists but a common text on other areas).

Djibouti, Eritrea , Ethiopia , Malawi and Sudan, which have not initialled an interim agreement are currently exporting under the EBA initiative since 1 January 2008 , for which they are eligible due to their LDC status. (Zambia had in 2007 initialled the ESA-EU interim agreement without submitting a market access offer, but initialled its market access offer with the EC on 30 September 2008. Accordingly, Zambia was temporarily exporting under EBA since 1 January 2008 but is now (since December 2008) included in the EPA market access regime.)

1- ESA

In the ESA grouping, four countries (Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and Zimbabwe) have signed an interim agreement with the EU in August 2009. Comoros and Zambia have indicated they will sign at a later date. To date, only the Seychelles has ratified the Agreement. The region being a very disparate group of countries, has reportedly had dificulties in coming up with common positions. Talk of transforming the ESA grouping into a COMESA groping was rumoured to be taking place in late 2010. In 2011, EC officials were observing that the ESA grouping was perhaps most suited to a 'variable geometry' approach.

Those that have initialled the Interim EPA (IEPA) have all submitted individual market access offers with different liberalization schedules and exclusion lists. All offers are based on the Common External Tariff (CET) of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) , which is however still a work in progress. Tariffs will be dismantled over a period of 10 years after a 5-year preparatory period.

Negotiations are in progress in the ESA region, focusing particularly on the issues of concern to the countries that did not sign an IEPA in 2007. These are:

1. Addressing the contentious issues, in particular the MFN clause, agricultural safeguard, EU agricultural subsidies, export taxes and liberalisation commitments of LDCs.
2.  Negotiations on outstanding issues contained in the Rendez-Vous clause (Article 57 of the IEPA), in particular on trade in services; investment and private sector development; trade facilitation; sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) measures, technical barriers to trade (TBTs); competition policy; intellectual property rights and government procurement amongst others.
3. The drafting of a comprehensive and costed development chapter in order to secure the resources that will help to overcome supply side constraints and cover the costs of EPA implementation.

While all countries are fully committed to conclude the full EPA, the region emphasized the need for appropriate sequencing between strengthening regional integration and completing negotiations among the countries of the region on key issues such as services and investment, before engaging on binding commitments with the EU. Although much progress has been achieved so far on the framework for an agreement on Services, progress has been relatively slow regarding market access offers.

On the proposal of the EU to have ambitious commitments on trade related issues, such investment and Government Procurement, the region has so far argued that it was ready to have an agreement covering cooperation and strengthening capacity but was not ready to negotiate market access at this stage. On the issue of development, ESA has proposed a Development Matrix to the EU.

At the last regional technical negotiators meeting, ESA negotiators went through the EPA text and agreed positions article by article or agreed that member states would submit positions ahead of the next ESA meeting to be held immediately before the technical negotiations scheduled to be held with the EU at the end of June 2011. The ESA Council has instructed regional negotiators to focus on areas where there is scope for advancing the negotiations (such as trade defence instruments, non-tariff measures, customs and trade facilitation, the most-favoured nation clause, trade-related issues, services, agriculture and development cooperation). Issues still under discussion (such as trade liberalisation coverage and timing, export taxes and development benchmarks) will be dealt with at senior official and ministerial levels.

2- EAC Region

On 27 November 2007 the EAC (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda) agreed to an EPA with the EU.

Although there had been renewed pressure at the beginning of 2010 for the EAC to finally sign the agreement, initialled in November 2007, and while dates have been set on a couple of occasions, the region has not yet done so. Negotiations have resumed in 2011, after a pause following the 2010 June 9th fallout in Dar es Salaam where Ministers failed to agree on a number of provisions of the agreement. A roadmap was setup for negotiations in February 2011, outlining the priorities for negotiation - such as market access, economic and development cooperation, agriculture, trade-related issues including trade in services - and sets up a negotiating timetable. Negotiations were delayed however by the blocking of Swedish funds meant to finance the region's negotiations by the East African Legislative Assembly, who feared such an arrangement might compromise the EAC's negotiating stance.

Officials from both sides had declared themselves confident that negotiations could be concluded in 2011, but this was recently put into doubt given the slow pace of the negotiations. Consensus remains to be found on the contentious issues, notably on Articles 15 and 16 that deals with export taxes and the MFN clause. The standstill clause and the development matrix are also critical issues that remain to be solved.

ESA-EU framework agreement

Text of the agreement:
Interim agreement establishing a framework for an Economic Partnership Agreement between Eastern and Southern Africa States on the one part and the European Community and its Member States on the other part, published by the Council of the European Union as annex to a Council decision on the signature and provisional application of the agreement, 30 April 2009
-> liberalisation schedules:
* Cuistoms duties on products originating in ESA states
* Customs duties on products originating in EU states into the signatory ESA states:
Comoros: (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)
Madagascar: (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)
Mauritius: (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)
Seychelles: (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)
Zambia: (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) (part 6) (part 7)
Zimbabwe: (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) (part 6)
-> Annexes III and IV: ESA states exceptions on duties, taxes on exports, national treatment on internal taxation and regulation (annex III) AND development matrix (annex IV)
-> rules of origin : Protocol 1 concerning the definition of the concept of "originating products" and methods of administrative cooperation
(part 1) (part 2)
-> Protocol 2: mutual administrative assistance in customs matters
-> Final act

Summary of the agreement:
"The European Commission initialled an interim trade agreement with the Seychelles and Zimbabwe of the ESA region in Brussels on 28 November 2007 , with Mauritius on 4 December 2007 and with Comoros and Madagascar on 11 December 2007 . The deal includes a WTO-compatible market access schedule, provisions on development cooperation, fisheries and other issues. Negotiators confirmed that the agreement is open to other parties in the region, who are expected to join in the near future. The agreement is a framework towards the completion of a comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement by the end of December 2008.

Goods Covered
The agreement allows for 100% liberalisation by value by the EU as of 1 January 2008 , with transition periods for rice and sugar. The Seychelles will liberalise 97,5% of its imports from the EU by 2022: 62% of their imports will be liberalised after five years, 77% by 2017 and the remaining 20,5% by 2022. Zimbabwe will liberalise 80% of their imports from the EU by 2022: 45% by 2012 with the remaining 35% of their imports being liberalised progressively until 2022. Mauritius , on its part, will liberalise 95.6% of its imports from the EU: 24.5 % in 2008, 53.6% by 2017, and the remaining 42% will be liberalised in 2022. Coverage for Comoros and Madagascar is over 80% of their imports from the EU. In the case of Comoros , 21,5% of their imports will be liberalised after five years, and the remaining 59,1% will be progressively liberalised by 2022. In the case of Madagascar , 37% of their imports from the EU will be liberalised after five years, the remaining 43,7% will be progressively liberalised y 2022.

Goods Excluded
Several products from different sectors have been excluded from liberalisation, mainly due to the need to protect sensitive products or infant industries in the countries. In the case of Seychelles , these include meat, fisheries, beverages, tobacco, leather articles, glass and ceramics and vehicles. In the case of Zimbabwe , excluded products include products of animal origin, cereals, beverages paper, plastics and rubber, textiles and clothing, footwear, glass and ceramics, consumer electronics and vehicles. Mauritius excluded from liberalisation live animals and meat, edible products of animal origin, fats, edible preparations and beverages, chemicals, plastics and rubber articles of leather and fur skins, iron & steel and consumer electronic. In the case of Comoros , the excluded goods are mainly of animal origin, fish, beverages, chemicals and vehicles. For Madagascar , the excluded products comprise meat, fish, products of animal origin, vegetables, cereals, beverages, plastics and rubber, articles of leather and fur-skins, paper and metals among others.

Other features
The Parties will cooperate to facilitate the implementation of the Agreement and support regional integration and development strategies. They agreed that cooperation will be based on the ESA Development Cooperation Strategy and a jointly agreed Development Matrix. They will cooperate to mobilise resources additional to the financial framework of the EU, from EU Member States and other donors, in particular expanding Aid for Trade commitments, relating specifically to EPA support requirements and adjustment costs.
The agreement contains an extensive fisheries chapter, mainly aiming at reinforcing cooperation on sustainable use of resources."
(Summary provided by the European Commission, 19 December 2007 , keywords highlighted by acp-eu-trade.org editors)

EAC-EU framework agreement

Text of the agreement:
Agreement establishing a framework for an Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Community and its Member States, on one part, and the East African Community Partner States, on the other part, published by the Council of the European Union as annex to a Council decision on the signature and provisional application of the agreement, 3 April 2009
-> Annexes I and II
-> liberalisation schedules:
EAC tariff reduction offers (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)
-> Protocol 1 concerning the definition of the concept of "originating products" and methods of administrative cooperation (part 1) (part 2)
-> Protocol 2 on mutual administrative assistance in customs matters
-> Final act

Summary of the agreement:
"On November 23 in Uganda the European Commission and the East African Community initialled an interim EPA agreement. This agreement will apply to the EU and to Kenya , Uganda , Tanzania , Rwanda and Burundi . Negotiators agreed that the first phase of negotiations for an EPA had been successfully completed and that they would continue negotiations towards a full EPA in 2008 and a rendezvous clause is included in the agreement to this effect.

Goods Covered
The agreement allows for 100% liberalisation by value by the EU as of 1 January 2008 (with transition periods for rice and sugar) and 82% liberalisation by value by the East African Community (64% in two years, 80% in 15 years, the remainder in 25 years). It covers 100% of EU tariff lines and 74% of EAC tariff lines.

Goods Excluded
Exclusions include: agricultural products, wines and spirits, chemicals, plastics, wood based paper, textiles and clothing, footwear, glassware. The main criterion of these exclusions is the desire to protect infant industry.

Other features
The agreement contains an extensive fisheries chapter, mainly aiming at reinforcing cooperation on sustainable use of resources."
(Summary provided by the European Commission, 19 December 2007 )

Relevant documents and websites

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