The Council of the EU on 27 November 2023 adopted a decision on the conclusion of a free trade agreement (FTA) between the EU and New Zealand. This decision clears the path, on the EU side, for the entry into force of the agreement. Once New Zealand also completes its legal requirements and procedures, the agreement can enter into force, probably in early 2024. The FTA was signed on 9 July 2023.

We supported the negotiation process by conducting a Sustainability Impact Assessment, which was completed in mid-2020.

The final report for the evaluation of the AfDB's Ten-Year Strategy (TYS) for the period 2013-2022 has now been published. The evaluation assessed the performance of the TYS over the past decade in terms of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, and efficiency. It also drew lessons and recommendations to inform the preparation and implementation of the AfDB’s next long-term strategy for 2023–2032.

Download the evaluation summary report.

More information on the evaluation is available from the AfDB website.

Angola’s economy is characterised by an extremely high dependency on two exports: oil (95% of total exports) and diamonds (3-4% of total exports). Not only is this unsustainable - oil reserves are expected to be depleted in the medium term, and extraction generates few jobs - but it also means that the country is extremely vulnerable to oil price shocks. Export diversification is therefore imperative and urgent. Periodic increases in the world oil price (as happening presently) or postponements of graduation from least developed country status are no excuses for inertia!

Since 1971, the EU Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) has offered easier access to the EU market for goods exported from developing countries by eliminating or reducing import tariffs unilaterally (i.e. on a non-reciprocal basis). The current legal basis for the GSP, Council Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 of 25 October 2012, will expire at the end of 2023. If no new GSP Regulation is enacted, the Standard GSP and the GSP+ will be discontinued, and imports from the current beneficiary countries would attract the “normal” EU tariffs; only the EBA would continue to be applied. For the European Commission's DG TRADE, we provided an assessment of various policy options considered for certain elements of the GSP; The final report is now public. More information is available on the study website.

The nexus between Trade and Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) has attracted increasing attention in recent years and has led to important international political consensus, including the WTO’s 2017 Buenos Aires Declaration on Women and Trade. However, the trade and GESI agenda still faces significant challenges as it has not yet been translated into many practical actions, with uncertainty often remaining on how to approach the objective of fostering trade that is both socially inclusive and helps reduce gender inequalities.