The Economic Partnership Agreements are a programme for the creation of a free trade area (FTA) between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States. They respond to persistent criticism that the EU`s proposed non-reciprocal and discriminatory preferential agreements are WTO-inconsistent. The EPAs date back to the signing of the Cotonou Agreement. The EPAs with the different regions are in different scores. In 2016, EPAs were to be signed with three African regional economic communities (East African Community, Economic Community of West African States and Southern African Development Community), but which faced challenges. [1] [to be updated] Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are trade and development agreements negotiated between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and regions. The Cotonou Agreement allows EU and ACP countries to negotiate development-oriented free trade agreements, known as EPAs. The EPAs are firmly anchored in the objectives of sustainable development, human rights and development cooperation, which are at the heart of the Cotonou Agreement. Article 165 of the Japanese-Japanese EPA established a joint committee composed of representatives of the governments of the parties to the agreement to verify the implementation and application of the agreement. The first meeting of the Committee was held in Tokyo (Japan) on the day of the entry into force of the Agreement. At that meeting, the Committee defined the rules and procedures of the Joint Committee, adopted the uniform rules and set up a number of subcommittees. Because of the continuing incompatibility of previous agreements with the WTO, EPAs are primarily their reciprocity and non-discriminatory nature. These include the phasing out of all trade preferences established since 1975 between the EU and the ACP countries and the gradual elimination of barriers to trade between partners.
In order to meet the criterion of a non-discriminatory agreement, epAs are open to all developing countries, thus putting an effective end to the ACP group as the EU`s main development partner. The EU is an important trading partner of acp countries, accounting for more than 21% of its trade with the world. The EU is sub-Saharan Africa`s second largest trading partner (for the first time directly after China); the EU is the second largest trading partner in the Caribbean region after the United States; and the EU is the third largest trading partner in the Pacific region (China and Australia are the first and second largest trading partners respectively). The creation of a reciprocal trade agreement poses the EU the problem of how to reconcile the special status of the ACP group with the EU`s WTO obligations. The proposed solution to this dilemma is an agreement that is reciprocal only to the extent necessary to meet WTO criteria. In reality, the ACP countries will have some room for manoeuvre and will be able to maintain limited protection for their main products. The extent to which trade should be liberalised under the new EPAs remains widely debated and it remains to be seen whether the WTO provisions governing regional trade agreements will be revised at the end of the Doha Round in favour of the EPA system. The EPAs with sub-Saharan African countries and other EU free trade agreements with North African countries are building blocks that contribute to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the long-term prospect of a free trade agreement between continents. The EPAs already contain useful trade instruments for the construction of the AfCFTA. They provide a solid framework for regional trade and investment between the EPA partners themselves and with the EU.
They also strengthen the trading capacity of the EU`s partners. In the past, European companies have faced barriers to trade when exporting to Japan, which has sometimes made it difficult for them to compete. .