Little notes on the story of African Caribbean Pacific – European Union agreements

Treaty of Rome 1957- It was this treaty that associated trade and commerce of manyACP countries with Europe until independence occurred

Yaoundé I and II 1963, 1969

Lomé I 1975 - Had a focus on agriculture development and infrastructure financing, it introduced STABEX (a system for guaranteeing agricultural revenues)

Lomé II 1980 – More profound, it introduced SYSMIN, a trade mechanism for mining products

Lomé III 1985 – it introduced a political dimension, it also added aid efficiency

Lomé IV 1990 – reinforced the political dimension, it introduced the principle of conditionality

Cotonou 2000 - It tried to take into account the importance of new actors in the international system. This new deal tried to fight the disinterest of the EU regarding Africa in detriment of central and eastern Europe

Economic Partnership Agreements 2008 - Cotonou has been substituted by Economic Partnership Agreements since it expired in 2007 in countries like the Cote d’Ivoire. A regional deal was aspired to but failed so these EPAs are currently temporary and bilateral in nature.

Generally, the upsides of these trade agreement with the EU for developing countries are greater competitiveness, greater fluxes of EU investment and greater volumes of commerce. The downside usually resides with the opening up of markets to EU products and the possible inability of local commerce and industry to compete with these imports.