Still concerned about the outcome of their commodities and about the impact of the economic partnership agreements (EPAs) on their countries, the ministers of the ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) countries expressed their alarm to their European partners on Friday 5 May about the impact of Brexit on the EPAs as well.
These concerns were expressed in resolutions adopted on Thursday 4 May by the ACP Council with a view to their being examined at the 45th session of the joint ACP-EU Council of Ministers, in Brussels on Friday.
"We reiterated our concerns on bananas, sugar and cotton, in the framework of our relations with the European Union. Similarly, for the economic partnership agreements, the ACP Council reaffirms its commitment to ACP-EU trade relations and continues its appeal to the European Union to show flexibility in responding to concerns from ACP countries", Ethiopia's Minister for Finance and Economic Cooperation Abraham Tekeste, who is currently chairing the ACP Council, told press.
The resolution on the EPAs underlines that six EU member states have still not ratified the EPA between Cariforum and the EU – the only full EPA in force thus far, provisionally. The resolution also underlines that "the United Kingdom's departure from the EU, like the change of status of certain EU outermost regions, will have a significant impact on this EPA, while at the same time the region has trouble in implementing it".
Call for a true spirit of partnership. The ACP is alarmed to note that in central Africa, a region where Cameroon is the only country to implement a provisional EPA, the EU has unilaterally ended the negotiations for a regional EPA, calling all the countries in the region to join the EU-Cameroon EPA.
"Greatly concerned at the fact that many ACP countries remain outside the framework of an EPA and that the EPAs are a source of friction at regional level", with "a risk of undermining regional integration", the ACP countries call on the EU to show a true spirit of partnership, in both letter and spirit.
The ACP countries note that the sanctions imposed by the EU on Burundi have "complicated the completion of the signature and ratification process in the region of East Africa". (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)