The following is an excerpt of the speech made by Mr. Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Vice Chairperson of the African Union Commission, at the opening of the AU Ministers of Trade conference in Kigali on 1st Nov 2010.

African countries, organized into a number of negotiating groups, have been involved in the negotiations of EPAs with the European Commission for almost a decade.

These negotiations, which have been at great cost in terms of time and resources to African countries, have not made much progress. To date, no African country or region has been able to conclude and sign a full EPA with the EU.

The problem in this regard is the failure to resolve the contentious issues in the EPA negotiations, which the Joint Conference of AU Ministers of Trade and Finance identified in April 2008. What is needed to resolve the impasse in the EPA process is intervention at the highest political level of Africa and Europe. The forthcoming Africa-EU Summit in Libya provides an excellent opportunity for this purpose.

The AUC convened in Lusaka a coordination meeting of the Commission and the RECs to reflect on the way forward in the EPA process. The Coordination meeting has prepared a position paper on the EPAs, including analysis of the contentious issues and various options for Africa in the negotiations. The position paper is being submitted for the consideration of Ministers and for Ministers’ recommendations to our Heads of State for engagement on the EPA issue with their EU counterparts at the Libya Summit.