EPA and sensitive products: the danger for industrial policy 'incoordination'

To what extent has the regional exclusion list under the EPA shaped national industrial policy in countries within the ECOWAS region? The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are a series of bilateral free-trade systems between the EU and ECOWAS that, if ratified, will transform ECOWAS into a single trading bloc. Under ECOWAS's completed EPA, the region is required to liberalise 75% of its imports from the EU, with a 25% exclusion list to protect existing local industries. However, local industries operate nationally rather than regionally. The regional exclusion list, which was arrived at through negotiation between the fifteen countries of ECOWAS with each country's successful industry included in the regional protection policy, presents problems of 'incoordination'. As trade policies such as protectionism are an essential part of industrial policy, the movement of trade policies from national to the regional space, creates the possibility of incoordination where several neighbouring countries pursue similar industrial policy on the basis of common regional protection.