ABSTRACT
The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union (EU) and the countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP), have drastically restructured Europe’s trade architecture towards the third world. The establishment of EPAs constitutes a watershed in Europe’s relations with Africa. The scope and impact of these agreements will be even bigger when the ‘interim EPAs’, in force since January 2008, are transformed into ‘full EPAs’ encompassing new trade issues such as the liberalization of services and competition rules. This chapter introduces the main issues and questions of this book. We explain why the focus of this publication is on the non-trade aspects of the EPAs. First, and for various reasons, the EU policy-makers have always emphasized that EPAs are comprehensive partnerships for development in Africa, rather than narrow free trade agreements. Second, there are solid economic arguments why free trade as such will not substantially impact upon economic development, and the broader institutional context of trade relations should be addressed. Thus, whereas most commentators and academics have focused on the relevance of EPAs in terms of market access between the EU and the ACP,2 this volume will look at the trade-related issues in the context of EPAs. More specifically, we will analyse the role of Aid for Trade (AfT) schemes, regulatory trade issues, regional integration schemes and broader foreign policy considerations. The contributions of this book examine the position of countries of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), although several chapters will consider what lessons we can learn from the EU-CARIFORUM EPA.
