{"id":1017809,"date":"2026-06-10T15:41:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1017809\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T15:41:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:41:13","slug":"european-firms-gain-access-to-african-tax-havens-as-eu-seals-first-ever-offshore-trade-pact-euobserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1017809\/","title":{"rendered":"European firms gain access to African tax-havens, as EU seals first-ever offshore trade pact \u2013 EUobserver"},"content":{"rendered":"

EU\u00a0financial\u00a0services outfits\u00a0will soon have unfettered access to two of Africa\u2019s main offshore financial\u00a0centres\u00a0under a new trade agreement announced on Wednesday (10 June).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

EU Commission officials have concluded\u00a0talks\u00a0with\u00a0Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles \u2013 known as the\u00a0ESA4\u00a0\u2013\u00a0to\u00a0upgrade\u00a0a pre-existing economic partnership agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement, the commission said<\/a> that the new agreement would match free trade in goods with \u201creciprocal preferential market access\u201d\u00a0for services and investment, digital trade, public\u00a0procurement, and\u00a0competition policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although trade with the four African island states is\u00a0relatively modest\u00a0at a combined \u20ac9.7bn in 2024,\u00a0Mauritius and Seychelles have two of the continent\u2019s largest offshore financial services sectors. <\/p>\n

The deal would make it \u201ceasier and more predictable for EU firms to supply services in the ESA States, including in sectors such as professional and business services, maritime transport, telecommunication, and financial services,\u201d said\u00a0the commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

EU and ESA4 firms will also have near-complete access to each other\u2019s public procurement markets and investors will be treated the same as\u00a0domestic investors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In covering services, as well as\u00a0harmonising\u00a0rules on state subsidies, intellectual\u00a0property\u00a0and a raft of technical non-tariff barriers to trade,\u00a0the agreement is the first\u00a0of its kind with African states to go beyond goods trade.\u00a0Officials say that it will be open to the 12 other members of the Eastern and Southern Africa trade bloc.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The agreement is the latest of a series of new free-trade pacts that the EU has brokered over the past\u00a018 months, and the first with African states, as part of the EU Commission\u2019s efforts to diversify the bloc\u2019s trade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The main regional prize for Brussels is to revamp its trade relations with South Africa, the continent\u2019s main economic power.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since mid-2025, EU and South African officials have been in negotiations on an improved trade deal, and a Memorandum of Understanding on critical minerals, under which the EU would offer investment in South Africa\u2019s mining industry in exchange for access\u00a0to minerals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But other African leaders are also in the queue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earlier this week,\u00a0following meetings with\u00a0Kenya\u2019s president William Ruto, the EU Commission announced new investment<\/a>\u00a0totalling\u00a0\u20ac54m in a series of digital infrastructure\u00a0and transport projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ruto has been in Europe since the start of this week, also touring Berlin and Paris to encourage EU\u00a0governments and businesses to increase investment in Kenya.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ruto\u00a0will also attend the France-hosted G7 summit\u00a0along with leaders\u00a0from\u00a0 India, Brazil, South Korea,\u00a0Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, all of whom are either in the process or have recently agreed on revamped trade pacts with the EU.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EU\u00a0financial\u00a0services outfits\u00a0will soon have unfettered access to two of Africa\u2019s main offshore financial\u00a0centres\u00a0under a new trade agreement announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1017810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[217083,2000,299,5187,221891,273573,221889,273571,221890,273572],"class_list":["post-1017809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-typedefinedterm","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-identifier26","tag-identifier4399","tag-nameafrica","tag-nameeu-trade","tag-termcodeafrica","tag-termcodeeu-trade"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116726575154273170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1017809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1017810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1017809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1017809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1017809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}