From 19/06 – 17/07/2023, the EU asks for an evaluation of the Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and SADC (Southern African Development Community) EPA States.
The EU-SADC EPA is a development-oriented free trade agreement between the EU and six countries from the Southern African Development Community (SADC): Botswana, Eswatini (previously Swaziland), Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa. It was signed on 10 June 2016 and entered into provisional application on 10 October 2016 for all Parties to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), except for Mozambique, for which it entered into provisional application on 4 February 2018. Angola participated in the negotiations of the EUSADC EPA, but did not end up signing the EPA. In February 2020 Angola submitted a request to join the EPA, however, the launching of negotiations with Angola is still pending agreement by the SADC EPA States.
The EU-SADC EPA is the first and only regional EPA in Africa to be fully operational (all partners are implementing the tariff cuts set out in the EPA). The Agreement seeks to contribute to reducing and eradicating poverty, promoting regional integration, economic cooperation and good governance, promoting the integration of SADC EPA States into the world economy and improving trade policy capacity in SADC EPA States, among other objectives.
The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the implementation and impact of the EU-SADC EPA 7 years after the start of its provisional application. The evaluation should determine whether the EPA has been fully and correctly implemented and the extent to which the EPA contributed efficiently and effectively to reaching its objectives.
More information is available from the website of the website of the European Commission here (incl. a download of the call for evaluation).