This was the objective of the 7th Meeting of the Cameroon-European Union EPA Committee, whose works were opened on 05 July 2023 in Yaoundé by the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Alamine Ousmane Mey.
During those proceedings co-chaired by the Ambassador, Head of the European Union Delegation to Cameroon, H. E. Philippe Van Damme, and the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Alamine Ousmane Mey, the National Coordinator of the Cameroon-European Union Partnership, the Cameroonian and European parties examined their economic dealings, through discussions on the future of the bilateral Cameroon-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement. Ultimately, these works which end on 06 July 2023, will involve taking meaningful measures to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the bilateral Cameroon-European Union EPA. On the agenda for this seventh meeting: the joint signature of the EPA Committee’s decision about the creation of a sub-committee on agriculture and rural development; exploratory discussions on the opening negotiations to extend the scope of the EPA on the basis of rendez-vous clauses; the review of formalities about the adoption of the common origin rules protocol; the presentation of the customs balance sheet of the tariff dismantling process in Cameroon, etc.
Opening these meetings in the presence of the members of the EPA Committee and the Head of the ACP Countries Unit at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade, the Minister for the Economy revealed that the customs balance sheet of the tariff dismantling process resulting from the implementation of the EPA by Cameroon as at 28 June 2023, evaluates the tax loss for the main products imported into Cameroon at a total of 61.2 billion CFA francs since the start of the dismantling process. However, said Alamine Ousmane Mey, this shortfall should not overshadow the progress achieved in the trade section of this Agreement. The Agreement allowed fifty Cameroonian companies to benefit from trade preferences in particular to acquire production equipment for the European market, but also to sell their products on the European market. This will be done on a duty-free basis. The National Coordinator of the Cameroon-European Union Partnership also seized the opportunity to invite the European party to strengthen the measures prescribed in the development section of the EPA, in keeping with the guidelines of the National Strategy for the implementation of this Agreement, validated by both parties, and whose funding is estimated at 850.97 million euros, or around 558.4 billion CFA francs for the period 2020-2030.
As a reminder, the dismantling of tariff barriers linked to the EPA has been effective in Cameroon since 04 August 2016. This Free Trade Agreement between Cameroon and the EU is part of the overall framework of the Cotonou Agreement signed in June 2000 by the EU and the ACP Group of States. It responds the sovereign will of Cameroon and the EU to strengthen their partnership in the economic, political and cultural fields.
