Nadere details van handelsovereenkomsten met Oost- en Zuid-Afrikaanse landen (en)

MEMO/09/367

Brussels, 31 August 2009

Interim Economic Partnership Agreements: Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA)

• 1. 

  State of Play

ESA is a diverse EPA group including Indian Ocean islands (Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles), countries from the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan) and some countries of Southern Africa (Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe). At the end of 2007, the 6 ESA States: Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Zambia and Zimbabwe agreed an interim EPA with the EU.

This deal is a stepping stone towards a more comprehensive trade partnership and remains open to other countries willing to join at a later stage (such as Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Malawi and Sudan). There is also a clause which would allow ESA countries not willing to make a market access offer, to benefit from the development cooperation and fisheries provisions foreseen in the initialled text.

The original ESA group at the start of the EPA negotiating process also included the Eastern African Community (EAC) states of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. However, in 2007 they agreed a separate interim EPA based around the newly formed EAC customs union.

• 2. 

  Main features of the interim EPA
• - 

  A market-access deal with Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
• - 

  Other agreed chapters such as Rules of Origin (still open to discussion), development cooperation, fisheries, trade defence and dispute settlement mechanisms.

Goods liberalised

The interim EPA offers duty free quota free access for all imports from ESA as of 1 st January 2008, with transition periods for rice and sugar. ESA will liberalise its market to EU imports in line with the six individual schedules annexed to the interim EPA.

EU - ESA Trade in Goods

Figures and graphics available in PDF and WORD PROCESSED

In 2007 total EU imports from the ESA Group reach ed around €3.17bn, or 0.38% of all EU imports, including mainly copper, raw cane sugar, textiles, tobacco, processed tuna and coffee. EU exports to ESA, comprised mainly of machinery (32%), vehicles and chemicals, reached about €3.96bn the same year

ESA S tates decided their own schedules to liberalise trade with the EU as set out below:

Goods excluded from liberalisation

The ESA countries decided to exclude the following EU imports from liberalisation:

The ESA countries have not been in a position to table a single regional market access offer but are now trying, in the framework of the ongoing negotiations, to identify common positions and to find convergence in their offers.

• 3. 

  The Negotiating Process

Negotiations to build on the interim EPA and agree a more comprehensive trade partnership resumed at the beginning of 2008 with all ESA countries including those which did not join the interim EPA (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Malawi and Sudan). The objective of the EU and ESA in these negotiations is to conclude an agreement at regional level, which supports development and fosters regional integration.

The interim EPA contains a rendezvous clause providing for continued negotiations on trade in services, investment, agriculture, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) provisions and technical barriers to trade (TBT), customs and trade facilitation and trade-related rules. All these issues are currently under discussion.

Since the beginning of the negotiations in 2008, ESA has identified various market access issues – so-called "contentious issues" - that it wishes to re-open in the framework of the ongoing negotiations and where the EU is willing to re-engage. These include the trade coverage of the agreement, non-discrimination ("MFN") clause, export taxes, safeguards and rules of origin.

Negotiations on Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Standards (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) as well as those on trade facilitation are close to an agreement. Agriculture and Services have also made significant progress. Discussions on other trade related areas such as investment, intellectual property, government procurement, sustainable development or competition are ongoing.

• 4. 

  State of play of negotiations

Four rounds of negotiations at technical and senior official levels took place in 2008. These were followed by a ministerial meeting in Lusaka in April 2009 where Parties shared concerns and agreed to resume negotiations. There were follow up rounds of negotiations at technical and senior officials' levels at the end of April as well as technical discussions end of July, all in Brussels.

On market access, Parties have agreed to include a regional preference provision that extends any ESA preferences granted to the EU to other ESA countries in order to boost regional integration. There was also progress on issues such as export taxes, infant industry promotion, tariff standstill and quantitative restrictions. Both sides agreed that the product coverage of the agreement should be discussed on a case by case basis with concrete market access offers rather than in general terms. Discussions on the EU's outermost regions, agriculture safeguards and the non-discrimination ("MFN") clause are ongoing.

An agreement on the other market issues such as Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Standards provisions, Technical Barriers to Trade and trade facilitation is expected shortly and technical discussions are ongoing on Rules of Origin.

With regards to trade-related issues, including intellectual property rights, transparency in government procurement, sustainable development and competition, significant work still remain to be accomplished. The EU and ESA positions in these areas are relatively convergent but all ESA States may not be equally ready to take commitments on these issues. On services and investment, discussions are currently based on a textual approach. Negotiators are working on the basis of one merged text including both EU and ESA proposals. No discussions on market access commitments have yet been engaged.

Finally, with regards to development cooperation, the current text is broadly agreed, with ESA wanting to strengthen the language in relation to availability of additional funds from EU Member States. On the EU side it is clear that our support under the 10 th European Development Fund (and under the regional envelope in particular) is already available and should be given due attention. Identification of needs related to any new agreement should indeed remain consistent with the regional development cooperation as provided for in the Regional Strategy Paper. The EU side also explained that its Member States are eager to support ESA States in their trade efforts and that specific needs could be identified in the framework of the EU Aid for Trade initiative. ESA is proposing to include some development benchmarks in the agreement and will conduct a study to this purpose.

For the latest state of play, please see:

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/bilateral/regions/acp/regneg_en.htm

For dates of EPA negotiating Rounds see:

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/bilateral/regions/acp/epa_calendar_en.htm