Mauritius will host the next round of negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the Eastern and Southern African Group (ESA) and the European Union (EU) from 28 to 30 November 2011.
The negotiations will be preceded by the Technical Meeting on Rules of Origin scheduled for 24-25 November, and the Technical Meeting on all clusters, that is, development, trade in goods, services, agriculture, dispute avoidance and trade-related issues, on 26-27 November.
Around 40 delegates from the ESA region and the EU will be in attendance. The participating ESA countries include Comoros, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Seychelles, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The Mauritian delegation will be led Mr S. Boodhoo, Deputy Director, International Trade Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, while Mr J. Wunenburger, Head of Unit on Economic Partnership Agreements, will lead the EU’s delegation.
A joint EPA draft text containing proposals by the EU and the ESA group will constitute the basis for the negotiations. It is expected that the Mauritius meeting will close gaps on many issues such as agriculture, trade facilitation, competition policy while making progress in other issues including services and investment.
It is recalled that an Interim EPA was signed in Mauritius in August 2009 covering trade in goods, development cooperation and fisheries. The Interim EPA was crucial to safeguard Mauritius’ preferential access on the European market in traditional sectors such as sugar, textiles and fish and fish products in the light of the expiry of the World Trade Organisation’s waiver for the Cotonou Trade Provisions in December 2007.
Negotiations are now being pursued to conclude a full EPA which will encompass other areas, including trade in services and trade-related issues such as investment, competition policy and trade facilitation.
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