Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries have been underway for over a decade. The current system for ACP countries’ preferential access to the EU market was due to expire in 2007. However, for numerous reasons, many ACP states have still not signed up to such agreements.
This regulation governs the EU import regime for the 36 ACP countries that initialled EPAs in 2007. It is a bridging solution for those countries which were not in a position to apply EPAs, but were awaiting their ratification.
The European Commission therefore proposed that, as of 1 January 2014, those countries which have not signed or ratified the agreements should be removed from the list of beneficiaries to the EU market.
Our group is of the belief that a cut-off date of 1 January 2014 is too short a deadline and puts too much pressure on ACP countries to conclude such deals. We therefore believe that 1 Jan 2016 is a more suitable date.