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The
European Union will this weekend launch trade talks with 16
eastern and southern African countries aimed at negotiating a
region-to-region partnership accord, the European Commission said
yesterday.
EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy will travel to Mauritius for two
days of talks on the framework for an Economic and Partnership
Agreement (EPA), the EU executive said.
"The EPA negotiations with Eastern and Southern Africa will follow
a hands-on approach: development is the objective, trade one of the
tools," Lamy said on the eve of the trip.
"Tearing down barriers to trade among themselves is the necessary
complement to the almost full access to the EU market already
enjoyed by these countries," added a commission statement.
The commission underlined that the EU has already committed more
than €700-million for supporting trade-related activities and
regional integration in the eastern and southern African
countries.
The 16 countries at the weekend talks are: Burundi, Comores,
Djibouti, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar,
Malawi,Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and
Zimbabwe.
The countries, with a total population is 280-million, are all
members of the 77-nation Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP), which
includes some of the world's poorest nations.
"Many of these countries belong to the poorest in the world and
have suffered some of the harshest conflicts and humanitarian
crisis in Africa," said the commission.
"Economic integration is expected to help preventing in future the
risks of new conflicts," it added.
The European Union is set to expand from 15 to 25 members on May 1,
boosting its population to 450-million people. – Sapa-AFP.
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