The Cotonou AgreemenL foresees se lling up fr ee trade, EconomicrnPa rtnership AgreemenLs (EPAs), between t h e EU a nd regional ACPrnco nfigurations. Consequently, the preferential system for AC P exportrnprodu c ts entering the EU market had to be replaced, beginning 1rnJ a nuary 2008, by a trade ag reement base d on reciprocity 1ll a mannerrnthat is WTO compatible.rnOwing to the facL thaL m os t countries didn't sign th is agreement on thernbasis of the t im e table, it was not possible to put this agreeme nt in tornforc e a nd h e n ce whaL is called th e In terim Economic Partne r s hiprnAgreemel1l h as been initialed and signed by various ACP countries tornavo id trade disruption that may resu lt from the expiry of the waiver fromrnWTO on De cembe r 31,2007.rnEthiopia didn't s ign a n y o f th e s e agreements until today a nd has beenrnn egotiating to be party to it. But the re have been divergence in w id ernrange of issues, m osL of w hi c h are the major r e a sons for th e country torninvolve in this n egot ia tion, between th e EU and E t hi opia. These speciall yrnin c lude: the MF'N provIsion, d eve lopment coo peration , scope ofrnlibera li zation , use o f quantitative restriction, export tax, customsrnvaluation agree m e nt, loss o f government rev e nue, c ompe titiven e s s ofrnEthiopia n produc ts fo ll ow in g libera liz a tion, substantial adjustme nt costsrnthe co untry wi ll fa ce, issu es o f r egion a l integr ation and WTO+ issues inrnthe negotiation. Unde rstanda bly, a ll of these issues h ave their own veryrns ignificant bearing on th e m arket as we ll as overa ll economic activity ofrnt h e c ountry and h ence it is qu ite essential to have c le ar and soundrnag re e ment that protects the best in te rest of the cou n try on t h ese iss ues.