The Head of the European Union’s Delegation for the Pacific has reported that the Substantive negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) has ceased.
The EU’s ambassador for Pacific, Andrew Jacobs, said the main reason behind this stoppage was due to an issue of disagreements.
This discrepancy concerns European Union’s access to fisheries stock and the measures taken regarding conservation and management.
According Jacobs, Fiji and Papua New Guinea’s provisional EPA does not have a time limit and therefore would continue to run.
Mr Jacobs, however, would not reveal as to what could come about as a result of the three-year stoppage.
“At the moment, the negotiations are not on-going, that we are not sitting in a room, the European Commission and the Pacific partners discussing negotiations on the EPA, the comprehensive EPA because we have some up against a number of obstacles and we feel that until the Pacific side.There is a clear, let’s say direction that is decided in terms of fisheries stocks, conservation and management that is unlikely these obstacles will be overcome,” commented Ambassador Jacobs.
Source: PACNEWS
