The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union (EU) and the AFRICA, Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP) aim to define a new global framework for bilateral economic relations between the EU and ACP countries. As part of the Cotonou Agreement, EPAs aim to promote economic growth and development as well as the harmonious and gradual integration of ACP countries into the global economy. From the EU`s point of view, two main objectives stand out. First, the EU has sought new trade agreements with ACP countries that would ensure compatibility with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. Non-reciprocal trade preferences under the Lomé Conventions required a WTO waiver, as these preferences were not limited to the least developed countries and were not granted to all developing countries. The new agreements provide for a transfer of the system of non-reciprocal trade preferences to EPAs, which are in fact bilateral free trade agreements. This means that ACP countries should open their markets to EU products over a 12-year period, planned between 2008 and 2020. Our cooperation with the countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) has been around for a long time and has deepened over time, as evidenced by the successive ACP-EU partnership agreements signed in the years following the first Lomé Convention (1975). The Economic Partnership Agreements are a system for creating a free trade area between the European Union and the Group of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP). This is a response to persistent criticism that the EU`s proposed non-reciprocal and discriminatory preferential trade agreements are incompatible with WTO rules. The EPAs date back to the signing of the Cotonou Agreement. EPAs with different regions are in different playing conditions.

In 2016, the EPAs were to be signed with three regional economic communities in Africa (East African Community, Economic Community of West African States and Southern African Development Community), but these faced challenges. [1] The EU has recognised that ACP countries may find it difficult to obtain the potential benefits of reciprocal trade agreements and has therefore extended the Cotonou agreement from a perspective that combines policy, trade and development.