EU pressures seven African countries to complete trade agreements

Seven African countries face paying tariffs on their exports to the European Union if they fail to honour trade agreements signed with Brussels in 2007.

The European Parliament granted the African countries an extension until October 2014 to ratify their interim Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).

To date, 17 countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group have not ratified or implemented the agreements.

The EPA allows countries to export goods to the EU without tariffs or maximum quotas, under World Trade Organization rules.

The countries benefited from the agreement without delays so as to not disrupt exports, principally towards Europe. In a regulation, the European Commission permitted the countries to maintain their privileged trade status, already upheld in the Cotonou agreement which expired in 2007.