Economic Partnership Agreements are of dubious value for poverty eradication and Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett has called on the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) grouping to seriously reflect on and probe deeply into the extent to which poverty eradication as well as sustainable development and integration into the global economy have been achieved.
Speaking earlier this week on the ‘Status of the ACP Group towards 2015 and Beyond’ during the 7th Summit of ACP Heads of State and Government, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Rodrigues-Birkett said that the longstanding and privileged ACP-European Union relationship is also challenged. “The relationship once predicated on aid and preferential trade has shifted with great emphasis on ‘political dialogue’ and reciprocal trade arrangements through Economic Partnership Agreements that remain contentious and of dubious value for poverty eradication,” she said, according to a transcript of her speech.
“With this in mind, this summit has reason to seriously reflect and probe deeply into the extent to which ‘the eradication of poverty’ and ‘sustainable development’ as well as our ‘integration into the global economy’ have been achieved. Such an
