On 17 July 2014 the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) announced that after 10 years the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the Southern African Development Community (SADC) EPA Group and the European Union (EU) had been “initialled” by the chief negotiators on 15 July 2014 in Pretoria. The “initialling” of the EPA signals that the negotiations have been concluded. It pre-empts the 01 October 2014 deadline imposed by the EU after which Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland would have lost preferential access to the EU market for their exports of beef, fish, sugar.
Through the EPA, South Africa achieves improved market access for 32 agricultural products, with a significant improvement in South Africa’s access to the EU market for wine (110 million litres customs duty free), sugar (150 000 tons customs duty free) and ethanol (80 000 tons customs duty free). In addition, there is also improved access for South Africa’s exports of flowers, some dairy, fruit and fruit products.
The EPA rules of origin improve on the Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) as they will facilitate intra-regional trade and industrialisation across southern and eastern Africa in particular. The new rules also contain provisions that will encourage South African clothing exports. Several other restrictive trade rules under the TDCA have been eased under the EPA. The EPA provides more flexibility than the TDCA to deploy export taxes on eight products for a period of 12 years with some exception for exports to the EU. South Africa also obtained an agreement that the EU would eliminate export subsidies on agricultural goods destined for the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu), as well as more effective safeguards to address damaging surges of imports.
South Africa agreed to negotiate a Protocol on Geographic Indications (GIs) since it has an interest in protecting the names of the many South African wines exported to the EU, and it has a growing interest in protecting the names of specialised South African agricultural products (such as rooibos and honeybush). The outcome of the GI negotiations will not affect the product names currently being used by producers in South Africa and importantly, for South Africa’s stakeholders. The EPA also established a mechanism to address non-tariff barriers (NTBs) that inhibit trade in wine.
According to the dti, in terms of the process and timeframe for entry into force, the EPA will first be subjected to a two-month legal vetting process. Thereafter, the EPA can be presented to the South African cabinet and, if approved, submitted to the South African parliament for ratification. Once ratified, the EPA may be signed and it will enter into force once all parties have concluded their own respective national approval processes. The dti expects that the timeframe for this process is likely to be around 8 months.