The Institute of Economic Affairs organised a roundtable discussion on the European Union's Economic Partnership Agreement: Impacts and Implications for Sub-Saharan Africa yesterday at the IEA Conference Hall. Dr John Asafu Adjaye, Associate Professor, Queensland University Australia presented a paper on the subject for discussion. On December 7, the European Commission initialled a stepping stone Economic Partnership Agreement with Ivory Coast and on 13 December with Ghana.  The agreement enables Ivory Coast and Ghana to benefit from significantly improved market acess to the EU as from 1 January 2008.  This will be an immediate boost for investment and growth in these countries.  Negotiations on a similar stepping stone EPA are ongoing with other West African countries.  In any event, negotiations on a full EPA covering all West African countries and covering also trade in services, investment and trade related rules, will continue in 2008.

Goods Covered 

The stepping stone EPA allows for 100% liberalisation by value by the EU as of 1 January 2008, with transition periods for rice and sugar.  It allows for 80.8% liberalisation by Ivory Coast over a time period of 15 years.  It covers 100% of EU tariff lines and 88.7% of Ivory Coast tariff lines.  In respect to Ghana, it allows liberalisation of 80.48 of the EC imports in value and 80.01% in tarif lines over 15 years 80.8%.

Goods Excluded

Certain agricultural as well as non agricultural processed goods are excluded from liberalisation by Ivory Coast and Ghana.  The main criterion of these exclusions is the desire to protect certain existing industries or infant industry and maintain fiscal revenue.

Other features

Both Agreements contains a title on Development Cooperation covering priority areas of development cooperation for accompanying the implementation of this Agreement.  The main ares identified are the reinforcement and upgrading of productive sectors, the cooperation in respect to fiscal adjustment, to foster the improvement of business climate, and the implementation of trade rules contained in the Agreement.  The parties agrr to cooperate in these areas notably in the context of the Cotonou Agreement.  the agreement also contains a detailed dispute settlement mechanism.  New and improved rules of origin will be annexed to this Agreement in the short future.  It is expected that these will help new investment and employment opportunities in Ivory Coast and Ghana.