The Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States

Brussels, 26 January 2007

6 - 7 February 2007, ACP House

The ACP Technical Follow-up Group on the Negotiations of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) will meet in Brussels, Belgium, on 6 and 7 February 2007 to take stock of progress made in the EPA negotiations and to prepare the meeting of the ACP Ministers responsible for the negotiations, which is scheduled for 27 February 2007.

During the meeting, the technical group will review the progress made in the regional negotiations, particularly in terms of market access, services, development matters, trade-related issues and legal and institutional issues.

The Group will be informed of, and discuss the conclusions of an assessment of the EPA regional negotiations prepared by a regional network of farmers organisations made up of EAFF (East African Farmers Federation), PROPAC (Programme d’appui à la pêche artisanale en Casamance), ROPPA (Network d’organisations paysannes de l’Afrique de l’Ouest), SACAU (Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions) and WINFA (Windward Islands Farmers Associations).

In the light of those discussions, the Follow-up Group will identify the issues and topics that are to be addressed by the ACP Ministers responsible for the EPAs, the ACP Ministerial Trade Committee and the ACP-EC Joint Ministerial Trade Committee that are scheduled to meet on 27 and 28 February and 1 er March 2007, respectively.

Formed in 2004, the ACP Technical Follow-up Group on the Negotiations of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) is essentially responsible for reviewing progress achieved in the negotiations and formulating recommendations for enhancing the effectiveness of the approaches and strategies to ensure the success of the negotiations. It comprises a technical chief negotiator from each of the ACP regions or configurations established for the negotiations, a representative from each of the six ACP regions, individual representatives of the respective regional organisations if they are not leading the negotiations, a representative of the Secretary-General of the ACP Group, a representative of the Troïka of the Committee of Ambassadors and one representative of the Group of High-level Experts.

• ACP Member States:
Angola - Antigua and Barbuda - Bahamas – Barbados- Belize- Benin - Comoros – Botswana - Burkina Faso - Burundi – Cameroon- Cape Verde – Central African Republic - Chad – Congo (Brazzaville) – Democratic Republic of Congo – Cook Islands - Côte d'Ivoire – Cuba - Djibouti – Dominican Republic - Dominica - Equatorial Guinea - Eritrea - Ethiopia - Fiji - Gabon - Gambia - Ghana - Grenada – Republic of Guinea - Guinea-Bissau –Guyana - Haiti -Jamaica - Kenya - Kiribati - Lesotho - Liberia - Madagascar - Malawi - Mali – Marshall Islands - Mauritius - Mauritania – Micronesia - Mozambique - Namibia - Nauru - Niger – Nigeria - Niue - Uganda - Palau - Papua New Guinea - Rwanda – St. Kitts and Nevis – St. Vincent and the Grenadines – St. Lucia – Solomon Islands - Samoa – São Tome and Principe - Senegal - Seychelles - Sierra Leone - Somalia - South Africa - Sudan - Suriname - Swaziland - Tanzania –Timor Leste - Togo - Tonga – Trinidad and Tobago – Tuvalu – Vanuatu – Zambia – Zimbabwe