[DIPLOMACY] East African Community - European Union Economic Partnership Agreement

##EAC-EU Economic Partnership Agreement

In 2017 the timeline to ratify the proposed EAC-EU Economic Partnership Agreement - providing free trade in goods between the two trading blocs - expired. This countries like Kenya with a GDP per capita above $1,400 unable to trade with the EU tariff and quota free - as they no longer qualified for the Everything But Arms programme for least developed countries.

Today Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania have all fallen out of eligibility for this tariff and quota free access to the European Union - with Rwanda being disqualified imminently and Uganda in the next few years. The need to sign the previously negotiated EPA therefore is high for the East African Community in order to secure a strong export market for its goods.

For the European Union too, an economic partnership agreement offers a huge potential market with a growing middle class and some of the highest rates of economic growth in the world. Securing a trade agreement with the EAC's 350 million people would give the European Union and its exporters a major head start over their economic rivals to establish themselves in one of the most promising markets in the world.

An attempt to renegotiate the agreement a few years ago hit a roadblock when Germany refused to allow extra time and protection for the East African Community to fully industrialise and prepare itself for external competition. However, given the 10 years that have passed since the negotiation of the proposed Economic Partnership Agreement it is the opinion of Ethiopia that this extension was unnecessary.

We therefore propose to accept the EPA as it was offered in 2017

A brief summary is below

• The proposed EAC-EU Economic Partnership Agreement would have provided the immediate duty free and quota free access to the EU market for all EAC exports in goods in exchange for the gradual removal of EAC tariffs and quotas on EU goods
• In total 82.6% of EU imports to the EAC will be liberalised. 65% of EAC goods are already duty and quota free between the EU and EAC, 15% of goods will be liberalised within 10 years, and the remaining 2.6% of goods within 20 years.

Additionally we propose to evaluate the EPA on completion, and begin the negotiation for a full free trade agreement - which would include trade in services- between the EU and EAC to be completed by 2032

As the Economic Partnership Agreement is linked with the Cotonou Agreement which South Sudan is not a signatory of, South Sudan must also first sign and ratify that agreement