The Cotonou Agreement aims to smoothly integrate the ACP countries into the world economy, strengthening their production, supply and trade capacities. This requires a growing capacity to attract investment, establish strong trade and investment policies, and effectively deal with all trade-related matters.

The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) are the commercial pillars of the Cotonou Agreement. The EPAs reflect a shared ambition to create a new partnership between the EU and the different ACP regions, including Central Africa. This strengthened economic partnership combines trade and development cooperation to promote sustainable growth and job creation.

An EPA has been negotiated since 2003 between the EU and Central Africa (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe, and).

Nevertheless, given the inherent difficulties of negotiating an agreement to cover a large number of countries, on 17 December 2007 Cameroon and the EU agreed on an interim EPA to apply until a regional agreement can come into force. The main advantage of this option was that it allowed Cameroon to continue enjoying commercial preferences which it would have risked losing, in line with the rules of the World Trade Organization.

The interim EPA was approved by the European Parliament on 13 June 2013 and ratified by Cameroon on 22 July 2014.

The interim EPA gives Cameroon duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market, while imports duties on 80% categories of goods originating from the EU will be dismantled by Cameroon over a 15-year period. They are mostly inputs used by Cameroon's industries that are not produced locally. Eliminating import duties will reduce the costs of inputs for local businesses and will also benefit consumers.

Cameroon has excluded 20% categories of goods originating from the EU from the tariff dismantling (mainly agricultural and non-agricultural processed goods), to ensure the protection of certain local agricultural markets and industries and to maintain fiscal revenues. The excluded products include most types of meat, wines and spirits, malt, milk products, flour, certain vegetables, wood and wood products, used clothes and textiles, paintings, and used tyres.

The agreement also stipulates commitments from the EU and its Member States to help Cameroon become more competitive, as well as measures to help exporters meet EU import standards (sanitary and phytosanitary measures). Moreover, it includes cooperation on the establishment of more effective customs procedures, and fiscal adjustment, in order to guarantee that the suppression of customs duties will not destabilize the country's public finances.

More about EPA EU-Cameroon

Today, the EU is Cameroon’s leading trade partner. Cameroon's exports towards the European market are estimated at 47 % of its total exports. Its imports from the EU account for around 30 % of all its imports. Many EU companies are doing business in Cameroon, creating jobs and bringing added value by offering new services and products.

More about European business activities in Cameroon, and the initiatives funded by the EU and its Member states to support businesses in Cameroon

In 2014, in the context of the 11th European Development Fund (EDF), the EU and Cameroon signed a new National Indicative Programme (NIP) for a total of 185 billion FCFA, for the 2014-2020 period. The Delegation, together with the government, works to formulate new programs in this framework, particularly in the two major sectors covered by the EDF: Governance and Rural Development.

About the 10th EDF…

To fight the illegal exploitation of forests and fraudulent trade of Cameroonian wood, the EU set up the FLEGT ("Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade") action plan in 2003, which is based on two components. The first component aims to develop a wood offer which is guaranteed to come from legal harvesting in voluntary producer countries. It was embodied by the signing of Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs). These agreements establish a system for verifying legality in producer countries, along with an authorization system at export ("FLEGT authorisations"). The second concerns the elimination of illegal wood across the whole European market. The EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) prohibits the trade of illegally harvested wood (sale of illegal wood) and of products derived from this wood, wherever it was harvested. Operators putting wood products on the European market for the first time (importers or timber growers) must exercise due diligence.

In 2009, the EU and Cameroon signed a Funding Agreement aiming to support the improvement of governance in the timber sector in Cameroon. The implementation of this Agreement called for a national Legality Assurance Scheme (LAS) for wood, and included three components: strengthening the capacities of the Ministry in charge of forests; supporting the establishment of a new traceability system for wood; and supporting the creation of an independent audit mechanism for the FLEGT system. This support for the establishment of the measures set out by the Voluntary Partnership Agreement also involves mobilizing the thematic budget headings of the European Commission under the Environment and Natural Resources Thematic Programme (ENRTP), which mainly supports the involvement of national civil society organizations in the FLEGT process. The EU's financial contribution for these different projects and programs is estimated at 6.6 billion FCFA.

Thanks to EU support, Cameroon has just acquired a software package for managing the balance and State personnel. This software package is part of a vast support program for public finance reform, which has a budget of 7.6 billion FCFA. For the EU, it is a matter of improving the performance of public authorities, the management of public finances and the efficiency of State services, particularly supported by a statistics component via a direct subsidy to the National Statistics Institute.