Tags: Regional Integration, Economic Integration, Scenarios, COMESA

The purpose of this study, is to evaluate possible economic repercussions of the trade facet, in Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), currently being negotiated between countries of the Common Market in Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and Member-States of European Union (EU). In so-doing, we have used two complementary models, the first one, based-on a general equilibrium approach, and the second, a partial equilibrium method. Indeed, multilateral trade agreements, will have implications trade activities, on the production of goods and factors, the price of consumer-goods, on the are of specialization of national economies, and their productive structure. Existing trade policy instruments also, will have direct and indirect effects on the market value of goods produced locally, or imported onto the markets of the COMESA sub-region.

The study under review, has four parts, which are as follows: The first, highlights major challenges in negotiating EPAs, are presented on the COMESA sub-region (1), followed by a systematic approach to the evaluation of various economic repercussions, these agreements might have in the COMESA sub region (2), then, moving onto simulations of the general equilibrium approach (3) and, the results of partial equilibrium scenarios (4).

Assessment of the Impact of the Economic Partnership Agreement between the COMESA countries and the European Union.pdf