WTO Compatibility and the Legal Form of EPAs: A Case Study of Eastern and Southern Africa

Abstract

This paper considers the compatibility of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Commission (EC) and African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) countries with the law of the World Trade Organisation. The Eastern and Southern African EPAs are used as a case study. Three possibilities for compatibility are examined. The waiver option is rejected as overly vulnerable to change. It is argued that it is probably possible to justify the agreements under the Enabling Clause, particularly for Eastern and Southern African EPAs. However, non-reciprocal arrangements were not politically acceptable to the EC or to the ACP countries. EPAs have been justified as Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). As the services components of the Eastern and Southern African EPAs are not yet negotiated, the analysis focuses on the goods components. Although the data currently available is not extensive, preliminary problems for compatibility emerge, including the failure to notify the agreements, the length of the transition periods, compliance with the internal requirement and the safeguard provisions. The WTO compatibility of these EPAs will depend on the extent to which the development objective introduces flexibility into the interpretation of the GATT.