Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)

Responses to the EU Offensive against ACP Developmental Regions

Dot Keet

June 2007

This paper highlights the negative effects of liberalisation of trade and investment within weaker economies and, in particular, how EU trade agreements undermine existing efforts towards developmental integration in ACP regions.

The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) proposed by the
European Commission (EC) are becoming of major concern to civil
society organisations in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)
countries, as well as NGOs in Europe. EPAs reflect the outwardly
aggressive "Global Europe" strategy, as formulated by European
Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.

Enormous pressure is being exerted on ACP governments to
conclude EPA agreements before the end of 2007. ACP activists
have compiled a wealth of criticisms of the EC initiative, pointing out
that the negative effects of the liberalisation of trade and
investment within weaker economies have already been extensively
documented.

This paper is concerned to bring these analyses to the attention of
European civil society and deepening understandings among
activists and governments of the implications of EPAs and, in
particular, how they undermine existing efforts towards
developmental integration in ACP regions.

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Dot Keet

Research Associate, Alternative Information & Development Center

Dot Keet is a South African academic and activist involved in many national, African and international networks resisting corporate "free trade" agreements. She is an active member of the national South African Trade Strategy Group (TSG) and the Southern African Peoples Solidarity Network (SAPSN), the key coordinator of the Southern African Social Forum (SASF); as well as the continent-wide Africa Trade Network (ATN); and the international Our World is Not for Sale (OWINFS) network.