Are EU’s Economic Partnership Agreements Developmental? An Assessment of the Southern African Region

Abstract

This article aims to show the changes and potential consequences in the economic relations between the EU and Southern Africa, that the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) scheme is promoting. The main arguments for changing the previous model, and for the deployment of a new discourse and practice by the EU, clash with the approaches and proposals of some gover-nments in Southern Africa, and also with the views of many scholars. There-fore, it is pertinent to ask to what extent can EPAs be really developmental in Southern Africa and coherent with the rhetoric of partnership and promotion of development by the EU in this region and the whole continent.

Keywords

• European Union
• Southern Africa
• Economic Partnership Agree-ments
• Development.