|
Newsletter: February 2008
EU Grant Duty Free Access to ESA States
The European Community and Eastern and Southern Africa States (ESA) have
concluded negotiations on an Interim Agreement that will establish an
Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in 2008.
On the ESA side, the Interim Agreement was signed by Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda,
Burundi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with others namely
Comoros, Madagascar and Malawi, expected to sign the Interim Agreement in
the coming days while, DRC, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan may join
later.
On the trade provisions, the EC will grant duty free quota free market
access to all goods exported by ESA states except for sugar and rice which
are subject to short transition arrangements.
On textile and clothing, the EC agreed to provide the singl e
transformation rule of origin. This means that clothing companies
established in the ESA Signatory States can now source fabrics from anywhere
in the world, transform them and then export these goods to the EU free of
both duties and quotas.
On their part, the ESA States have agreed to gradually liberalize 80 per
cent of their trade for imports from EU covering mainly capital, raw
material and intermediate products over a period of 15 years with an initial
5 year preparatory period. |
