The European Business Council for Africa

Civil Society Dialogue meeting on the evaluation of the EU-SADC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA): draft inception report

31 May 2023, 14:00 CEST - 16:00 CEST

Webex

The EU-SADC EPA is a development-oriented free trade agreement between the EU and six countries from the Southern African Development Community (SADC): Botswana, Eswatini (previously Swaziland), Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa. It was signed on 10 June 2016 and entered into provisional application on 10 October 2016 for all Parties to the Agreement, except for Mozambique, for which it entered into provisional application on 4 February 2018. Angola participated in the negotiations of the EU-SADC EPA, but eventually did not sign the Agreement. In February 2020 Angola submitted a request to join the EPA and negotiations for Angola’s accession are expected to be launched soon.

The EU-SADC EPA is the first and only regional EPA in Africa to be fully operational and covers trade in goods and sustainable development. Under this Agreement, all SADC EPA States, except South Africa, receive duty free and quota free access for all their goods (except arms and ammunition) to the EU market. In November 2021 the review of the Agreement was launched, in line with Article 116 EPA.

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade awarded a contract for a “Study in support of an ex-post evaluation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union and its Member States and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) EPA States” to BKP Economic Advisors GmbH/SQ Consult B.V. The objective of this exercise is to assess whether the EPA has delivered the expected results and whether there is scope for improvement in EPA’s functioning that could form the basis for policy recommendations. This study will also analyse the economic, social, human rights (including labour rights) and environmental impacts of the implementation of the EPA. It will seek to collect feedback in relation to implementation and impact of the EPA both from public authorities and non-state actors in the EU and in the SADC region.

The Inception Report of the study describes the methodological approach, the draft intervention logic, the consultation strategy, the timeline, a preliminary selection of case studies and sets the ground for the analysis (including a review of existing studies and reports regarding trade between the EU and the six SADC EPA States, and a description of the Agreement).

Lead speakers
- Head of Unit – African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries Unit, Directorate-General for Trade, European Commission
- BKP team leader

Moderator
Civil Society Coordination - Transparency, Civil society and Communication Unit, Directorate-General for Trade, European Commission

Agenda

  • Introduction
  • Presentation of the draft inception report
  • Open discussion with stakeholders

The meeting will take place via WEBEX. Access code and password will be sent to registered participants. We would be grateful if participants could launch their WEBEX connection at least 30 minutes in advance of the meeting so that any technical problems can be arranged in time before the meeting.

The purpose of this meeting is to present to the EU Civil Society Organisations the current state of the evaluation process (the draft inception report) and exchange views and collect feedback from civil society.

Registration closes on 25/05/2023 at 12:00.