• EU trade policy
• EPA
• Lome and Cotonou
• Everything but Arms

EU trade policy

Despite a period of intense negotiations towards interim EPAs, a number of ACP negotiators and politicians have voiced concerns over some "contentious" provisions appearing within the agreements. This paper attempts to review some of the issues that have been raised by various ACP negotiators in key documents and meetings.

The paper indicates that it is difficult to categorise the difficulties into different types, since they all raise particular issues. Nevertheless, it is perhaps possible to define some common arguments for and against some of the provisions. For example, for many of the provisions, EC justifications focus on the importance of achieving agreements that meet the two criteria of being WTO-compatible and promoting development. Consequently, provisions may not be considered in isolation, and flexibility in one area must be compensated by greater discipline in another. By contrast, ACP justifications for flexibility focus on the idea of "policy space", highlighting in many cases the role that flexible policy instruments can play in actively promoting development.

The paper finds that in most cases, the potential benefits and challenges of the EPAs do not critically hinge on the way that concerns over these contentious issues will be addressed. Indeed, some factors will be much more prominent, such as:

• the overall balance of the final EPAs to be concluded
• the availability of appropriate accompanying measures and the effective pursuit of necessary institutional reform
  
• structural and economic domestic reforms

The paper concludes that there is potential for some flexibility on at least some of the contentious issues. However, the final outcome will naturally depend on the continuing negotiations. Thus, negotiators need to balance a number of interests and their judgment will, as ever, be crucial to a successful outcome.

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