The SADC-EU Economic Partnership Agreement was concluded and signed on the 10th of June 2016 by the European Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) EPA Group comprising Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). Angola has the option to join the Agreement in the future. The SADC-EU EPA became the first regional EPA in Africa to be fully operational after Mozambique started applying it in February 2018. The Agreement grants duty-free, quota-free access to European markets for goods exported from Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, and Eswatini (BLNS countries).

South Africa, whose trade relations with the EU were previously governed by the Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA), is guaranteed duty-free, quota-free access for 98.7% of their goods imported into the EU. The transition from the TDCA to the EPA meant enhanced market access for a number of South Africa’s agricultural exports; this has included the addition of expanded and new tariff rate quotas (TRQs), a combination of import quotas (that limit quantities) and tariffs (duties). This trade brief focuses on the SADC-EU EPA TRQs in South Africa.

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