How many countries signed EPAs in December 2007?

At the time of writing, 36 countries have ‘initialled’ an EPA. Trade negotiators initial the deals when they reach agreement and they are later formally signed by trade ministers. No countries have officially signed an EPA yet.

The ACP was divided in to six regions to negotiate the deals however only one of these regions – the Caribbean – has initialled a deal as a full regional bloc. In the African regions and in the Pacific, only some countries have initialled deals, while their regional neighbours not.

40 countries have not initialled any deal. Of these, 28 are Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and 12 are non-LDCs. LDCs can continue to sell most of their goods freely in Europe under an already existing alternative arrangement called the ‘Everything But Arms’ initiative. This means they have very little to gain from signing an EPA anyway.

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