EPA Update
By Melissa Julian, ECDPM

(from the November 2007 issue of Trade Negotiations Insights)

*Central Africa ‘close' to EPA deal?

Central Africa continues to advance in the EPA negotiations, although the market access component remains inconclusive. Speaking to journalists in Brussels on October 22, Commission officials claimed “something close to a full EPA is possible” with the region, and said the picture would become clearer following a ministerial meeting scheduled for October 29. Some believe the region may even sign a deal during this get-together.

However, CEMAC regions had not yet finalised their lists of sensitive products, with several countries deciding to put forward provisional offers in a bid to avoid delay. This has lead some within the region to discuss the possibility of signing only a partial deal, questioning the viability of wrapping up remaining issues by October 29. Others fear that a partial deal on goods market access only would push the question of development to one side.

Negotiations on services, investment and capacity building had been expected to advance following the meetings in Kinshasa at the end of September, but many within the region claimed that the meetings came to an unexpected end with details of these issues missing from the Commission's final text.

Sources have indicated that in the absence of a firm commitment on additional resources and financial mechanisms, the LDCs in the region would prefer to opt for the Commission's ‘Everything but Arms' system. Gabon has expressed reservations in signing an EPA. No agreement has yet been found on how to measure the loss of revenue. The Commission's desire to tie the distribution of funds to political issues such as good governance has also ruffled feathers.

Both sides remain divided over rules of origin, with CEMAC wanting to retain the rules agreed under the Cotonou Agreement as a basis while the Commission prefers to introduce rules according to the ‘added value' principle – up to a level of 70 percent. Some in the region have criticised that the Commission's recent offer on services as merely an “empty shell”.