Despite the process of negotiating the EPAs between the ACP and EU countries appearing to have been conceived with sustainable development goals in mind, progress in the negotiations has yet to reflect this ambition.

With only a few months remaining in the scheduled EPA negotiations, this situation is generating significant concern among various stakeholders including politicians, civil society representatives and academics in the ACP and Europe who have repeatedly urged that the EPAs not renege on their promise for sustainable development. It has also heightened awareness about the need to develop monitoring mechanisms to measure the progress of implementing the agreements in the context of sustainable development. 

As a contribution to the ongoing discussions on sustainable development among the various stakeholders from the SADC region, the Trade Law Centre for Southern Africa (tralac) and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) organized a SADC EPA Benchmarking Workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa on 1 October 2007.

The workshop brought together a group of 20-25 key stakeholders including international experts, policy-makers from the SADC and COMESA regions, and representatives of the business community, academia and civil society.

Read more in a Working Paper by Colin McCarthy, Paul Kruger and Johan Fourie: Benchmarking EPA negotiations between EU and SADC