The EU Economic Partnership Agreements: A Path Leading to the Decay of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific?

Abstract

The main goal of the article is to analyse the basic problems regarding the
Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) negotiations between the
European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
The negotiations so far have been controversial, and discussions about
them have been inconclusive. In the first section of the article, the
negotiations are set within the context of global politics and are especially
examined in the context of new regionalism/inter-regionalism and
international trade relations to clarify the motives behind the EPAs. Then
the negotiation parties are introduced and a brief overview of the ACP
economies follows, since they all have a considerable impact on the EPA
discussions. Next, an analysis of possible positive and negative impacts of
the EPAs on the development of ACP countries follows.