EPA Review Annex Documents - DFID

Description of the EPA negotiation process
1. The Negotiation Process
The following analysis will particularly focus on the dynamics of negotiation of the EPA’s
and the process as a whole. The idea is to highlight how the agreements were reached
(if they were) rather than describe the effects of such agreements in the respective
partners. As a consequence, we will try to analyse the main negotiation positions and
how these were adjusted or modified in order to close the gap between them.
The EPA’s negotiations were organised in two phases. During phase I, the European
Commission (EC) negotiated with the entire ACP Group. In phase II, the EC negotiated
separately with each group/zone. The Cotonou Agreement established the negotiation of
World Trade Organisation (WTO) compatible trading agreements between the EU and
the ACP countries that built on the regional integration processes of those countries. As
a consequence, the agreements would be negotiated with different regional agreements
in each of the ACP regions. However, the final decision of in which the EPA’s countries
participate would rest in each ACP country. 1 This was mainly applicable to African
countries since several countries participated in different regional agreements at the
same time. The only condition imposed by the EU is that a country had to commit to only
one EPA. In phase I the format, structure and principles of the negotiations was
negotiated, as well as the common issues to all ACP countries. Among them, we can
highlight important issues such as differential treatment, LDC status, WTO compatibility,
rules of origin and the general framework for trade in services. However, all these topics
were present later in phase II as there were no special commitments or agreements
reached in phase I. Phase I negotiations started officially in September 2002. According
to the EU mandate, the first phase should have been finished by January 2003, and
immediately after phase II should have started.
Before the start of the negotiations, it was highlighted that the negotiations and analysis
capacities of several ACP countries would not be in line with the challenges presented
by these negotiations. Furthermore, the EU launched a finance program of €20 million to
build capacity in support of the negotiations of the EPA’s. The program was managed by
the Program Management Unit (PMU) which was established to assist ACP countries in
the negotiations. 2 Among the activities of the PMU was the organisation, at the behest of
the ACP groups, of studies on topics that could help on the negotiations. They also had
to organise seminars and workshops to help on the negotiations.
On the ACP side, the Council of Ministers had the political leadership of the negotiations
and was responsible for the approval of them. The preparatory negotiations were
conducted by the ACP Committee of Ambassadors as it was one of their main
responsibilities to assure the coherence between EPA’s and WTO rules.
Since the start of the negotiations the ACP countries raised the issue of the assistance
and support to accomplish the objectives established by the EPA’s. As an the extension
of the agreements reached during Cotonou, a main objective of the EPA’s was to
enhance trade and development for ACP countries. Particularly on the latter, the ACP
1 Trade Negotiations Insights, Vol. 1, No. 1, February, 2002.
2 Trade Negotiations Insights, Vol. 1, No. 3, September, 2002.
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