South Africa, the EU, and the SADC Group Economic Partnership Agreement: Through the Negotiating Lens

Abstract

This chapter, by South Africa’s Xavier Carim, focuses on the anatomy of the negotiating process for an economic partnership agreement (EPA) between the European Union (EU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) EPA group from a South African perspective. The chapter highlights the challenges that arose from the differences in approach taken by the EU and South Africa to the negotiations, as well as the key developments that contributed to the successful conclusion of the process. The SADC-EU EPA process was particularly complicated for three reasons: first, South Africa’s stand-alone 1999 Trade, Development, and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) with Europe and the latter’s insistence on treating the former differently from the rest of the sub-region; second, Southern Africa’s regional arrangements, including SADC but also the Southern African Customs Union (SACU); and third, the 15-member SADC being split across four EPA negotiating groups. Carim argues that South Africa’s participation in the process was driven by a need to ensure that the agreement should serve the sub-region, as well as Africa’s development and region-building agendas. At the same time, the chapter also points to the potential of the agreement—as well as variations across the five African EPAs—to undermine the continental agendas.