Digital Signature Legality for General Partnership Agreement in European Union

How to eSign a document: digital signature legality for General Partnership Agreement in European Union

[Music] welcome to the European parliamentary research service podcasts in this podcast we'll review the successes and failures the strengths and weaknesses of the economic between the EU and the ACP countries and map a possible way forward stay with us [Music] what do Belize Burundi and Vanuatu have in common apart from beautiful rainforests and Landscapes they're all ACP members that's right the ACP is a group of 79 African Caribbean and Pacific States with which the EU has a special long-term partnership trade is part of this partnership and to enhance it the EU has negotiated economic partnership agreements or epas with these countries to gradually integrate them in the global economy while promoting sustainable growth and reducing poverty but what's the essence of these Partnerships well in a nutshell there are free trade agreements that allow ACP countries to export their products to the EU Duty and quota free providing important safeguards to protect these countries economies they are firmly anchored in the objectives of Human Rights and sustainable development and cooperation that are at the core of the kotanu agreement the overarching framework governing EU relations with these countries over the past 20 years but negotiating and establishing these Partnerships has proven longer and more complicated than expected and has met heavy criticism from civil society and some governments in ACP countries who see them as a way for the EU to push its own products into foreign market so what has been achieved so far well results are actually rather mixed with nine agreements negotiated covering over half of the ACP countries but not yet all implemented now which are the agreements in application until now seven Regional economic partnership agreements have been provisionally implemented five of these are with sub-Saharan African Regional groups or individual countries covering a total of 14 countries one with the Caribbean region covering all 14 Caribbean countries except for Haiti and one more with the Pacific region covering Fiji Papua New Guinea Samoa and the Solomon Islands Ivory Coast and Ghana concluded so-called stepping stone epas with the EU their full application pending the entry into force of the regional partnership agreement with the entire West African region which remains uncertain another 21 countries from West Africa and the East African Community have have concluded Regional EPA negotiations that are yet to be implemented most of them as well as other ACP countries benefit from privileged access to the EU via the eu's generalized system of preferences mostly using the so-called everything but arms scheme which removes tariffs and quotas for All Imports of goods except arms and ammunition coming into the EU from the least developed countries but some ACP Partners such as Tanzania Uganda Burundi or Nigeria are still reluctant to join these Partnerships Janel zamfir from the European parliamentary research service explains to us why indeed West Africa and the East African Community are the two ACP regions for ipasar stock because some African countries don't want to join the remain worries are related on the one hand to competition from cheap EU products flooding their markets this could put local farmers out of work and undermine attempts in industrialization on the other hand there are concerns about a strong reduction in import duties which are an essential source of state revenue the real economic impact of epas is the main controversial subject and it's difficult to draw a clear line among the arguments in favor or against their benefits while the European commission has strongly defended their contribution to sustainable development others in the EU and the African Union as well as civil society organizations are more skeptical even opposed arguing that they are mainly enforcing EU interests in a report on African trade from June this year the European Parliament called on the European commission to ensure that epas contribute to strengthen economic relations between the parties in a way that benefits them all equally taking into account that different levels of development but truth is when considering the impact of these trade Partnerships neither the Great Expectations nor the big fears have so far materialized take the EPA with the Caribbean countries for instance despite being enforced the longest it's had little impact on either side another agreement that has been enforce for a long time the one with the countries of the Southern African development Community has caused some tension between the two sides especially concerning trade of citrus fruit and poultry products the risk of fragmenting regional integration schemes particularly in Africa has also been raised as one of the issues that needs addressing although the fragmentation of the trade landscape in Africa has multiple other causes Beyond EU trade agreements another contentious issue is the way in which epas will contribute to current efforts to boost intra-africa trade and promote a single Continental Market notably through the African Continental free trade area the European Parliament believes these Partnerships must support African trade integration efforts instead of frustrating them but even if continent to continent integration is a common goal of both the European and the African Union a common free trade agreement between the two pan-continental organizations is not yet on the horizon the EU also considers that there is room for improving the epas one main concern is that while sustainable development is recognized as a major goal the economic partnership agreements with African countries are less detailed on the human rights labor social and environmental Dimensions than the more recent free trade agreements concluded by the EU with countries like Vietnam or South Korea mindful of this shortcoming the European Parliament has called for these partnership agreements to be modernized by adding strong and binding trade and sustainable development chapters aligned with the Paris agreement in response to this the European commission made several proposals on how to strengthen the sustainable development dimension of EU trade agreements including extending the regular dispute settlement mechanism to the trade and sustainable development provisions and a sanctions mechanism in case of non-compliance but development policy Remains the main carrot to encourage ACP countries to respect their International labor and environmental commitments the post-cotanu agreement includes Provisions in this respect but one country Hungary keeps on blocking its approval out of fear that more migrants will enter the EU so we'll have to wait and see how negotiations progress in the future want to know more check out yonel zamfir's full policy brief on the eprs website or in our app this is a European parliamentary research Service Podcast thanks for listening foreign