ISDS Case Map
Cameroon
For nearly thirty years the establishment of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), peasants’ organisations gathered in Cameroon have concluded that the WTO and free trade agreements hinder the development of countries in the Global South and lead to the ruin of small-scale producers worldwide.
Cameroon’s Investment Promotion Agency (IPA) signed an investment promotion agreement with Morocco to expand cross-border projects and strengthen economic cooperation. The deal, formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding, sets out a framework for closer collaboration, as Cameroon intensifies efforts to draw regional investors into its economy.
Cameroon and China have launched a new phase in their economic partnership with the signing of a framework agreement marking the first step towards the China-Africa Shared Development Economic Partnership Agreement (APECA).
On June 11, Cameroon officially deposited its instruments of ratification for the Samoa Agreement at the EU headquarters in Brussels. This new partnership agreement between the EU and the countries of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific is set to replace the 2000 Cotonou Agreement, which established the framework for the Economic Partnership Agreements.
Although some trade has taken place under this framework—such as exports from Ghanaian and South African companies in 2023—these transactions remain marginal.
On June 8, 2023, the European Union’s Commission announced the Cameroon-EU EPA Awards, a contest organized “to honor those who have taken up the challenge and are now benefiting from the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA)”
The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between Cameroon and the European Union benefited large enterprises the most, according to customs authorities. Those enterprises are mostly multinationals operating in the brewing, cement, chemical, and agribusiness industries.
In the last week, four African countries have received investment arbitration claims before the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Cameroon, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tunisia have been sued by investors from Italy, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
Ghana and six other countries have started trading goods and services under the African
Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
“Actual trading is starting between Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Rwanda, Tanzania, Tunisia and Ghana. In the coming weeks, the dream of our forebears will be off the ground, and historic as the moment may be.”
