AN ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTS AND CHALLENGES OF THE ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT IN ECOWAS-EUROPEAN UNION TRADE RELATIONS (2000-2014)

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTS AND CHALLENGES OF THE ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT IN ECOWAS-EUROPEAN UNION TRADE RELATIONS (2000-2014)

Abstract:

This study investigated the effects and challenges of the Economic Partnership Agreement in ECOWAS-European Union trade relations since it was scheduled for negotiation in the Cotonou Partnership Agreement of 2000 to the time the negotiated text was initialled by the concerned parties in 2014. The study was significant as some aspects of the EPA had become sources of contention in West Africa and European Union‘s trade relations. Considering that both regions had since 1995, when they became members of the World Trade Organization, subscribed to the principles guiding free trade and that throughout the negotiation of the EPA relations between the two Parties had incrementally been conducted largely in compliance with WTO requirements, an in-depth study of the contentious EPA-related issues became imperative. Equally, unlike most other studies that had treated the EPA out of its context by focusing solely on the 2014 text of the EPA (which was essentially the modality for the implementation of free trade principles already endorsed under WTO), the current study placed emphasis on the process around the EPA since its introduction in 2000 thus situating it in its right context for thorough investigation and understanding. The study was qualitative and descriptive, and open-ended in-depth interview questions had been deployed to generate primary data from sources that had relevant information on the subject. The study adopted Neo-liberal Institutionalism as it best explains most of the more important objectives of the principles underpinning the negotiation of the EPA. The study found that, beyond many of the error-laden perceptions about EPA, the process that EPA-related issues had driven since their introduction had speeded up the regional integration objective of ECOWAS, thereby affirming the position of Neo-liberal Institutionalism theorists that cooperation is possible through international regimes and institutions, and through them states could rationally focus on long-term benefits (collective goods). It was also found that the free trade principles behind EPA had been a major framework of the relations between the two parties in the period under study, had spurred certain national/regional economic-related reforms, and that the demands of living up to free trade principles placed on ECOWAS member states had contributed to the contentious nature of the EPA negotiations, while noting that the Master-Servant relationship between ECOWAS members and the EU would not diminish except the economies of the former became competitive. Consequently, in order for ECOWAS member states to be relevant on the global stage that was solely driven by free trade philosophy, they would have to embark on national/regional reforms and restructuring in the areas of fiscal policy, economic governance, greater integration etc. that would reposition them and make them competitive in the face of unavoidable external challenges such as the ones that the EPA presented.

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTS AND CHALLENGES OF THE ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT IN ECOWAS-EUROPEAN UNION TRADE RELATIONS (2000-2014)