EPA with the EU

Background

The European Union (EU) has granted preferential market access to the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States since 1964 under the successive Lomé Conventions and the Cotonou Agreement. Under these trade agreements, the ACP countries have benefited from duty-free access on the EU market on almost all products, except for some agricultural products regulated by specific commodity protocols such as sugar, beef, rum and bananas.

The preferences inherited from Lomé were non-reciprocal and were therefore not compatible with the WTO rules. During the post-Lomé negotiations which led to the Cotonou agreement, the EU asked the WTO for derogation until December 2007 for the setting up of new reciprocal Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with the ACP countries which would be fully compliant with WTO rules.

Economic Partnership Agreements

Formal negotiations of EPAs with the EU at all-ACP level started in September 2002. For the purpose of negotiating regional trade agreements with the EU, the ACP region has been divided into six sub-regions namely West Africa, Central Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa, Southern Africa, Caribbean and Pacific.

Mauritius opted to negotiate with the EU in an Eastern and Southern African (ESA) configuration, which is a sub-group of sixteen COMESA countries:

Interim EPA

An interim EPA was signed in Mauritius on 29 August 2009 between the European Commission and four Eastern and Southern African (ESA) countries namely; Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles and Zimbabwe.

The negotiations on outstanding issues are still ongoing and the Interim EPA will then be replaced by a full Economic Partnership Agreement.

EPA Rules of Origin

The EPA rules of origin are product-specific and can be one of the following types:

	Wholly produced
	Change in tariff heading
	Percentage rule
	Two-stage transformation for textile and clothing

EUR1 Certificate of Origin

The EUR1 Certificate of Origin is both issued and approved by the Customs Department of the Mauritius Revenue Authority. The online application for the EUR1 Certificate of Origin is made through a Freight Forwarder or Customs House Broker via the TradeNet system. More information on the EUR1 Certificate can be obtained from the Customs Department:

Mauritius Revenue Authority
Customs Department,
Customs House
Mer Rouge
Port Louis
Tel: (230) 202 0500
Fax: (230) 216 7784
Email: customs@mra.mu
Website: http://www.gov.mu/portal/sites/mra/updcus.htm

Useful Websites

Export Help Desk

European Commission