EU and African CSOs promote equitable trade relations in the era of EU Sustainability Directives

Southern and East African civil society organization, SEATINI, invited VOCAL Network alongside the African Biodiversity Network, Transform Trade, the African Ecofeminist Collective, and professors from the Universities of Berne and Helsinki to explore risks and opportunities for African stakeholders in the era of EU Sustainability Directives.

• EU Directives, including EUDR, are inevitable and more investment and collaboration is necessary to ensure smallholder farmers are not excluded from the European market.
• The EU market, en masse, is a preferable trade partner to African countries in coffee compared to other markets due to relatively higher prices and trade partner reliability.
• Acknowledging the EU has engaged some African sectors and governments, there has also been limited bi and multilateral engagement and resource-sharing across origins by EU governments and corporations, especially for inclusive smallholder compliance.
• Opening the advocacy space for encouraging the leadership and proactivity of African governments in shaping sub-national, national and regional legal, physical and sectoral infrastructure vis a vis these directives – fully embracing the power and influence they do have in an albeit asymmetrical policy, trade and resource dynamic.
• Raising other concrete advocacy opportunities linked to asymmetrical trade dynamics and Afrocentric policies with the inclusion of a call for removal of tariffs, especially for value-added processing and exports.