The Cotonou Agreement introduces new fundamental principles with respect to trade
between the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries relative to
the Lome Convention: in particular non-reciprocal preferential market access for ACP
economies will only last until 1 January 2008. After that date, it will be replaced by a string
of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) meant to progressively liberalise trade in a
reciprocal way. The progressive removal of barriers to trade is expected to result in the
establishment of Free Trade Agreements between the EU and ACP regional groups in
accordance with the relevant WTO rules and help further existing regional integration efforts
among the ACP.
Most discussions of economic development in Africa focus on regional integration as an
important element. From the first post-colonial meetings, African leaders emphasised
regional integration as a key element of their strategies. In the most recent African plan for
economic development, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), regional
and sub regional approaches to development are again a key element. The plan sees the small
size of countries, low incomes, and consequently limited markets as a limit to economies of
scale, thus denying attractive returns to investors and in so doing constraining the
diversification of production and exports. This is the key reason for pooling resources in
order to enhance regional economic integration.
The decision by Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland to sign the interim EPA came in the result
of SACU's failure to negotiate as a bloc with a view to sign the EPA.
In this research, the following statistical techniques were applied: t-test, f-test, regression
analysis and its forecasts model for seven Southern African Development Community-
Economic Partnership Agreement (SADC EPA) group trading with the European Union, is
used to simulate the opportunities and benefits of EPAs for countries of the SADC region.
Simulation results show that EPAs with the EU are welfare-enhancing for SADC overall,
leading also to substantive increases in real GDP. For most countries further gains may arise
from intra-SADC liberalization. / Thesis (M.Com.(Economics) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2011
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/15782 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Nkotsoe, Leonard |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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