The Frustrations of Free Trade and the Africa–European Union Samoa Agreement

Abstract

The Samoa Agreement between the European Union (EU) and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) includes strict language on concluding controversial Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between their members. Skeptical OACPS members have instead called for greater intra-African economic integration embodied in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). However, there are concerns that the EU aims to use the AfCFTA as a stepping-stone for a vast bicontinental free trade zone. Building upon elite interviews with African diplomatic officials, this article questions whether the pan-Africanism at the heart of the AfCFTA is compatible with the more integrative Eurafrican agenda embodied in the Samoa Agreement.