Ex-post evaluation of the EU-SADC Economic Partnership Agreement : final report : September 2024 : executive summary

The EU-SADC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) is a development-oriented free trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and six Parties of the Southern African Development Community (SADC): Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, and South Africa. It has been provisionally applied since October 2016, except for Mozambique, for which provisional application started in February 2018. To inform the European Commission's own evaluation of the implementation of the EPA to date and its impact, as well as to feed into a joint review by the Parties to the Agreement, the European Commission contracted an independent contractor, a consortium led by BKP Economic Advisors, to prepare an external evaluation study. The evaluation was undertaken over the period March 2023 to September 2024 and analyses the economic, social, environmental, and human rights (including labour rights) effects of the EPA in the territories of the Parties since its provisional application. In terms of evaluation criteria, it reviews the effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, relevance, and impact of the EPA. It also comprises four case studies - on the EPA's effects in the automotive, sugar, and poultry sectors as well as on renewable energy - to illustrate or add detail to broader findings.