The Echoes from AEFJN No. 30 - July August 2016 are now available online. 
1605 Working Group News on Trade – May 2016
- Full EU-SADC EPA text is ready
The second of May and while all the attention was focused on the TTIP leaks the EU had -without much notice- published the full SADC-EPA text so that it can be signed by the EU. The EPA is a comprehensive agreement with the whole SADC EPA Group including South Africa and replaces the interim EPA, signed in 2009, that was never ratified. This Agreement is based on the Cotonou Agreement and the Parties agree to implement this Agreement according to the development policies and regional integration programmes in which the SADC EPA States are involved.
2. EU Collaborate To Standardise Nigerian Produce For Export
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria and the EU have begun an initiative to establish a code of practice for Nigerian Agricultural products for exportation. The initiative will focus on products, such as cocoa, beans, Shea butter and melon. The workshop was critical for transforming agriculture in Nigeria and would help participants understand that Africa could feed itself through agriculture and export. Once again the EU imposes its codes of practices and it is Africa who has to change its traditions and ways of being into European models.
3. The EPAs with ECOWAS is Absurd and Criminal
Following the independence of Sub-Saharan Africa, notably 16 West African states, the EU has successfully managed to maintain trading relationships, of which tend to be bias/one-sided. These biases allow the EU to export 97% of their agricultural products and 100% of their industrial products, on top of that taxing the imported products sold by the EU. It’s necessary to note that lobbyists of large European groups, especially the French, have been the persuading force for heads of state of the ECOWAS that they have everything to gain from the APE.