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The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) nation-states are the most recent construct in a long history of developing countries' dependency and reliance on developed European countries. Even though Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) are widely used by countries party to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the European Union is hiding behind illusions of non-economic trade benefits, such as increased stability and health benefits, in their EPAs with ACP countries. The European Union has the economic bargaining power, creating an upper hand in the trade negotiations with the former colonial countries and other developing countries. The EPAs, like other PTAs, consistently have provisions that should be found to violate the most-favored nation (MFN) clause. Even though GATT Article XXIV allows for PTAs, in order for the WTO to achieve one of its initiatives to liberalize world trade, the MFN clause should penetrate throughout the EU-ACP agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

West African elites have successfully argued for an Economic Partnership Agreement Development Programme (EPADP) as part of free trade negotiations with the European Commission. ECOWAS officials state that the EPADP is necessary to realise the ‘development dimension’ of trade. In particular, they have (re)articulated Europe's own narratives relating to Aid for Trade and private sector development – insisting that the European Commission delivers on its promises. Accordingly, European negotiators have conceded the principle of the EPADP, stating that around €6·5 billion will be delivered. This article, however, examines the likely (in)capacity of the EPADP to meaningfully marry trade and development in the context of premature liberalisation under Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). Crucially, it argues that West African extraversion in terms of EPADP resources may entrench predatory elites while locking-in ECOWAS states into inequitable trade structures that re-embed poverty in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses rising investment issues with regard to replacement of existing trade agreement that governs trading relations between the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of Countries (ACP). It discusses new framework of trading agreements to be called Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). It mentions that EPAs complies with the World Trade Organization (WTO) principle of reciprocity.

The article examines the implications of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) for regional integration in Southern Africa, which is envisaged in the Cotonou Agreement. It mentions that EPA negotiations affect the existing regional economic bodies across Africa. The author emphasized that European Commission (EC) and EPA negotiating bodies should give importance to the objective of EPA of promoting of regional integration.

The article examines two limited forms of preferential trade arrangements: the African Growth and Opportunities Act of 2000 (AGOA) enacted by the U.S. Congress, and the Cotonou Agreement between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP). Both of these regimes are motivated by the belief that allowing trade status for developing economies will accelerate their economic growth and development.