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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Reinvigorating the EC/Sub-Saharan African Economic Partnership (EPAs) Debates: Perspectives and Challenges for Africa
| Panel |
50. The new scramble for Africa
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| Paper ID | 257 |
| Author(s) |
Ngangjoh Hodu, Yenkong
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | Although there seems to be outstanding differences of opinion between academics, policy makers, civil societies etc. on the nature of the link between trade and development and the international law of development, there is now a general consensus that international trade can be a useful developmental engine for LDCs and developing countries. Yet promoting development in Africa through trade does not only requires the elimination of barriers to trade between countries, but also among other things, requires a focused regional integration strategy, trade facilitation support programmes for African countries, more effective and binding S&D treatments at the multilateral level, the extension of the “Every Thing but Arms” (EBA) initiative to other non-LDCs in Africa, and the building of capacities to implement trade agreements and take advantage of the new global system. Meanwhile trade negotiators and policy makers in the ACP countries especially in Sub-Saharan African countries are worried about the impact of the outcome of the WTO Doha Negotiations(in particular, GATT Article XXIV on Regional Trade Agreements) on any future EPAs between the EU and Africa, there are already strong arguments on both sides of the spectrum on the proposed EC's framework for negotiation. At the same time, for the purpose of the EPAs Negotiation, African countries have been fragmented into different negotiating groups. Therefore, their negotiating strategies also vary. The purpose of this paper will be to re-visit the trade/development debates and to question and give fresh perspectives to the current EC/Sub-Saharan African EPAs debates. |
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