De Gucht is due to jet into Botswana on Thursday evening and leave on Friday afternoon, with an agenda that reportedly includes meetings with local and possibly regional ministers."We are confirming that he will be here next week on Thursday and Friday," EU spokesperson Bester Gabotlale told BusinessWeek on Wednesday. "A full release on his agenda will be made available to journalists soon. We expect that the media will be given an opportunity to pose questions to him during his visit".
De Gucht's visit comes as SADC states ponder yet another missed deadline for the completion of full Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) talks with the EU. Botswana and other SADC states have been negotiating a new trade deal with the EU for 13 years, missing the first deadline of December 2007 set by the World Trade Organisation.SADC and the EU also missed another December 2010 deadline for the resolution of the complex, political and economically sensitive talks. The region recently set itself and subsequently missed a June 2013 deadline to conclude a final EPA.
