Capacity-Building Workshop on the "Interfaces between WTO and EPA negotiations"

The South Centre, in collaboration with OXFAM International, held a three-day capacity-building workshop in Lilongwe, Malawi on the “Interfaces between WTO and EPA negotiations”. The workshop aimed at raising the awareness and technical knowledge of local stakeholders about issues related to both negotiations and to their interfaces. Issues covered included compatibility between the EPAs and the WTO; liberalisation of agriculture, manufactured products and services; and alternatives to the EPAs. The workshop was attended by representatives of both governments and Civil Society Organisations from countries of the Eastern and Southern African region negotiating EPAs with the EU.

Below are a list of documents that were distributed as background documents as well as the presentations made during the workshop.

Background Documents

•  Trade Negotiations in the Eastern and Southern African Region: Issues for ConsiderationAnalytical Note
•  The Development dimension of the WTO Agricultural Negotiations Policy Brief 7
•  Development at Crossroads: The Economic Partnership Agreement Negotiations with Eastern and Southern African Countries on Trade in Services Policy Brief 11
•  Fact Sheet 1: Understanding the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)Analytical Note
•  Fact sheet 2: The Value of EU Preferences for the ACP and EPA contribution to Market AccessAnalytical Note
•  Fact Sheet 3: Trade liberalisation and the difficult shift towards reciprocity in the EPAsAnalytical Note
•  Fact Sheet 4: Regional Integration and the EPAsAnalytical Note

Presentations

•  Interfaces between the WTO-DDA and EPA negotiations
•  Compatibility between the EPA negotiations and WTO rules (Article XXIV of GATT)
•  Considerations regarding trade liberalisation of ESA agricultural products
•  Considerations regarding trade liberalisation of ESA manufactured products
•  Considerations regarding liberalisation of trade in services in the context of the EPAs
•  Options and alternatives to the Economic Partnership Agreements
•  State of play in other EPA regions and major EPA deadlines

Report

•  EPA negotiations in the Eastern and Southern African region: Way Forward