(Business in Cameroon) – On June 11, Cameroon officially deposited its instruments of ratification for the Samoa Agreement at the European Union headquarters in Brussels. This new partnership agreement between the European Union (EU) and the countries of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific (ACP) is set to replace the 2000 Cotonou Agreement, which established the framework for the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).
The Samoa Agreement was signed in November 2023, provisionally entering into force in January 2024, and is slated to run for a period of 20 years. According to Olivier Kenhago Tazo, Minister Plenipotentiary and Counselor at the Cameroonian Embassy in Brussels and to the EU, this formal act makes Cameroon one of the first signatory states to ratify the new legal instrument that will shape relations between the European Union and ACP countries for the next two decades.
Kenhago Tazo, a specialist in Africa-EU cooperation, personally submitted the ratification documents, having previously played an active role in the negotiation of the Samoa Agreement.
“This ratification reflects Cameroon’s unwavering commitment to multilateralism and its determination to deepen ties with the European Union, while also strengthening South-South cooperation and alliances among Global South countries,” he said.
Cameroon was already a party to the Cotonou Agreement, which led to the creation of the EPAs that Yaoundé has applied since August 4, 2016. These agreements stipulate the gradual removal of tariff barriers between Cameroon and the EU’s 27 member states. Under the EPA, “Cameroon is to progressively eliminate, over a 13-year transitional period from 2016 to 2029, customs duties on 75% of goods (or tariff lines) originating from the EU—equivalent to 80% of its imports from the bloc.”
The ratification of the Samoa Agreement is expected to ensure the continuation of this preferential trade regime.
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