The EU-ACP (Mrican, Caribbean and Pacific) Economic Partnership Agreements and their Implications for Ethiopia
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Date
2010-01
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The Cotonou AgreemenL foresees se lling up fr ee trade, Economic
Pa rtnership AgreemenLs (EPAs), between t h e EU a nd regional ACP
co nfigurations. Consequently, the preferential system for AC P export
produ c ts entering the EU market had to be replaced, beginning 1
J a nuary 2008, by a trade ag reement base d on reciprocity 1ll a manner
that is WTO compatible.
Owing to the facL thaL m os t countries didn't sign th is agreement on the
basis of the t im e table, it was not possible to put this agreeme nt in to
forc e a nd h e n ce whaL is called th e In terim Economic Partne r s hip
Agreemel1l h as been initialed and signed by various ACP countries to
avo id trade disruption that may resu lt from the expiry of the waiver from
WTO on De cembe r 31,2007.
Ethiopia didn't s ign a n y o f th e s e agreements until today a nd has been
n egotiating to be party to it. But the re have been divergence in w id e
range of issues, m osL of w hi c h are the major r e a sons for th e country to
involve in this n egot ia tion, between th e EU and E t hi opia. These speciall y
in c lude: the MF'N provIsion, d eve lopment coo peration , scope of
libera li zation , use o f quantitative restriction, export tax, customs
valuation agree m e nt, loss o f government rev e nue, c ompe titiven e s s of
Ethiopia n produc ts fo ll ow in g libera liz a tion, substantial adjustme nt costs
the co untry wi ll fa ce, issu es o f r egion a l integr ation and WTO+ issues in
the negotiation. Unde rstanda bly, a ll of these issues h ave their own very
s ignificant bearing on th e m arket as we ll as overa ll economic activity of
t h e c ountry and h ence it is qu ite essential to have c le ar and sound
ag re e ment that protects the best in te rest of the cou n try on t h ese iss ues.
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