Press Release: Economic Partnership Agreements: EU and Southern African countries sign interim deal

The European Union signed an interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) on 4 June, 2009, with Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. Mozambique signalled its intention to sign this agreement in the near future, but its trade minister was unable to come to Brussels today. This interim agreement secured EU market access for these countries while negotiations for a full EPA with the seven country Southern African Development Community (SADC) EPA group are ongoing. The other members of the SADC EPA group are South Africa, Namibia and Angola. Declarations attached to the interim EPA set out how the EU and the SADC EPA group will address outstanding controversial issues in the negotiations for a full EPA.

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