SADC states and the European Union have missed the year-end deadline for the completion and signing of a full Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), a target set in June and designed to bring finality to the complex process. Following the expiry of the Cotonou Agreement, the seven SADC states, Botswana among them, began lengthy negotiations for a new trade agreement, but the process eventually failed to meet the original December 2007 deadline enforceable by the World Trade Organisation.