EU Issues Report on Latest Trade Deal Talks With 5 African Nations

The European Commission conducted its 13th negotiation session with five eastern and southern African nations to expand the existing economic partnership agreement, the Directorate-General for Trade announced. The nations are Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and Zimbabwe. The commission released a report detailing the negotiations, which took place in Comoros March 18-22 and "included discussions at technical level on all open thematic parts covered by these negotiations." The chapters on fisheries and technical barriers to trade were provisionally concluded, while three more chapters -- customs and trade facilitation, competition, and transparency in public procurement -- were quasi-concluded as "compromise proposals were exchanged," the commission said.