adminbefore the end of the year to aid faster economic growth and development after a long stagnation.
The move comes as the economy enters its fourth year of consecutive growth, following a decade of instability that resulted in the gross domestic product shrinking by half, the advent of hyperinflation and the collapse of critical sectors.
According to a copy of the votes and proceedings of the House of Assembly of the Parliament of Zimbabwe, the trade agreements include bilateral investment promotion and protection agreements with India and the State of Kuwait. The trade pacts encompass economic partnership agreements between the European Union and African, Caribbean and the Pacific Group of States, as well as the international coffee agreement and the Cotonou agreement.
It is expected that the five trade agreements would be ratified during the current session of the fourth session of the seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe.
Although only five are up for ratification, more could be approved.
Zimbabwe seeks to boost economic growth and development and integrate into the global economy, having lost ground in the last decade, by ratifying the Bippas signed with India in 1999, and with Kuwait in 1997.
Economic Partnership Agreements are a scheme to create a free trade area between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States.
The accords are a response to the criticism that the non-reciprocal and discriminatory preferential trade agreements between developing countries and the EU are incompatible with World Trade Organisation rules.
The EPAs are a key element of the Cotonou Agreement, the latest pact in the history of ACP-EU development co-operation, which took effect from 2008.
The Cotonou Agreement is a treaty between the European Union and the ACP member States. Seventy-nine ACP countries and the then 15-member States of the European Union signed it in June 2000 in Cotonou, Benin. It came into force in 2003 and is the most recent agreement in the history of ACP-EU Development Co-operation. It is reviewed every five years.
It is designed to establish a comprehensive partnership, based on three complementary pillars – development co-operation, economic and trade co-operation, and enhancing the political dimension of ACP-EU
partnership.
The ACP co-operation with the EU has been anchored around the first Lomé Convention of 1975, which was followed by Lomé II, III and then Lomé IV, which was signed in 1990.
It was succeeded by the Cotonou Agreement in 2000, which was revised in 2005 and last year for the second time. Several countries attended the signing event in Ouagadougou.
The International Coffee Agreement of 2007, the seventh Agreement since 1962, was agreed by the 77 members of the International Coffee Council at a meeting held in London on 28 September 2007. Zimbabwe is a signatory to this international agreement.
The 2007 agreement is expected to strengthen the ICO’s role as a forum for intergovernmental consultations, facilitate international trade through increased transparency and access to relevant information, and promote a sustainable coffee economy for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Other Bippas expected to go to Parliament during the current session include those with Iran, Singapore and the Opec Fund.
Zimbabwe has already concluded bilateral trade agreements with South Africa and Botswana. The Botswana agreement has since been ratified in the House of Assembly.
Online Reporter