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The Future of the ACP Group of States in a Changing World: Challenges and Future Perspectives

Document Cited authorities 3 Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorGuy Marcel Nono
Published date01 February 2015
DOI10.3366/ajicl.2015.0109
Date01 February 2015
Pages29-53
INTRODUCTION

The reflection on ‘The Future of the ACP Group of States in a Changing World: Challenges and Future Perspectives’ was on the agenda of the seventh summit of Heads of State and Government of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP), which was held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea (13–14 December 2012). This summit led to the adoption of the Sipopo Declaration,1

Sipopo Declaration (adopted 14 December 2012) ACP/28/065/12, available at http://www.epg.acp.int/fileadmin/user_upload/Sipopo_Declaration.pdf (accessed 5 June 2014).

which summarises the main themes discussed by ACP Heads of State and governments

To contribute to the discussions that focused on the future of the ACP Group of States as far as its partnership with the European Union (EU) is concerned, it is important to analyse what contribution the ACP has made to the regional integration within the various sub-regions, 38 years after its inception.

In the wake of discussions on the potential negative effects of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) EU–ACP on regional integration processes of ACP countries and on the economic and social rights of ACP populations,2

Oxfam, ‘Partenaires inégaux Comment les Accords de Partenariat Economique (APE) UE–ACP pourraient nuire aux perspectives de développement d'un grand nombre de pays parmi les plus pauvres’ (2006), available at http://oxfam.qc.ca/sites/oxfam.qc.ca/files/2006-09-27_Partenairesinegaux.pdf, accessed 4 June 2014); J. Nalunga, D. Scott and V. G. Traor, ‘Les accords de Partenariat Economique: Violation des droits humains en Afrique’, available at http://acordinternational.org/silo/files/les-accords-de-partenariat-economique-violation-des-droits-humains-en-afrique.pdf, accessed 4 June 2014; FIDH, ‘10ème Sommet de l'Union africaine Lettre ouverte aux chefs d'Etat et de gouvernement de l'Union africaine réunis à Addis-Ababa du 31 janvier au 2 février 2008’, available at http://www.fidh.org/10eme-Sommet-de-l-Union-africaine (accessed 4 June 2014).

we wanted to know what the future of the ACP Group would be regardless of its relations with the EU. Moreover, we wanted above every other consideration, to bring out the activities of this group of states that populations are not aware of, since it is difficult to find information on the identity of the ACP Group, with the exception of its relations with the EU

The present study is far from analysing the patronage relations that have existed for 25 years between the EU and the ACP (1975–2000), including the Economic Partnership Agreements that provided a subject matter for many a researcher,3

D. Perrot (ed.), Les relations ACP–UE après le modèle de Lomé : quel partenariat?, Bruylant (2007); C.-E. Côté, ‘De Genève à Doha: genèse et évolution du traitement spécial et différencié des pays en développement dans le droit de l'OMC’, 56 Revue de droit de McGill (2010): 115–76.

as well as the Yaoundé I and II Agreements, which preceded the Lomé and Cotonou Agreements,4

I. Ousseny, L'OMC et le régionalisme: le régionalisme africain, Larcier (2012), pp. 251–2.

 and is proper to examine the ACP Group from its inception, following independence HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE ACP GROUP OF STATES

In order to have a clearer view of the future prospects of the ACP group of states, it is worth knowing about its past so as to understand its present and outline its future. If the ACP group officially came into being in 1975, a good number of the countries that make it up today had a special relationship with the European Economic Community (EEC), now the EU since 1993.5

K. Kenneth, ‘From Georgetown to Cotonou: The ACP Group Faced with New Challenges’, special issue, 20–3 The Courrier (September 2000): 20.

The ACP group of states therefore originates from the colonial history of some of the EU member states. The only ACP country that was not colonised is Ethiopia. Strictly speaking, cooperation between the EEC and some ACP countries dates back to the Treaty of Rome in 1957, which instituted the EEC. While negotiating the said Treaty some European countries, France ,for instance, given the complexity of its economy embedded with that of its overseas territories and countries (PTOM),6

Senegal, Sudan, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Mauritania, Niger and Haute-Volta; The Middle-Congo, Oubangui-Chari, Chad and Gabon; Saint-Pierre and Miquelon ,the Comoro Islands, Madagascar and dependent territories; The French Coast of Somalia, New-Caledonia and dependent territories, French Territories of Oceania, Southern Lands and Antartica; the Autonomous Republic of Togo, Cameroon Territory under French administration, Belgian-Congo and Rwanda-Urundi; Somalia under Italian administration, the Dutsch New-Guinea.

 made it a condition for being a member of the European Common Market, that its PTOM be included into the said market. Thus, articles 3(k), 131 to 136 of the Treaty of Rome7

Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (adopted 25 March 1957, entered into force 1 January 1958), available at http://www.cvce.eu/obj/treaty_establishing_the_european_economic_community_rome_25_march_1957-en-cca6ba28-0bf3-4ce6-8a76-6b0b3252696e.html (accessed 5 June 2014).

 made provisions for a system of association between the EEC and the PTOM having some special relationship with Belgium, France, Italy and the Netherlands. The EEC, comprising six states, was concerned about weaving economic ties with their colonies and their overseas territories.8

IEDES, ‘Renouvellement de la Convention de Yaoundé’, 37/10 Tiers Monde (1969): 213–236, p. 213.

 The aim of that association was the promotion of economic, social and cultural development of the PTOM, and the establishment of close economic ties between the latter and the EEC. In order to make this possible, the Treaty of Rome created the European Development Fund (EDF) to finance infrastructural projects within the PTOM

Most of the PTOM having become independent, the reaction of their former colonial metropolises was to negotiate and sign the Yaoundé I Agreement of 20 July 1963,9

Convention d'association entre la Communauté économique européenne et les États africains et malgache, associés à cette Communauté (adopted 20 July 1963), Journal officiel des communautés européennes, OJ 93 (11 June 1964): 1431–57.

between the EEC10

Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Holland.

 and 18 Africa and Madagascar Associated States (EAMA).11

Burundi, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Leopoldville), Ivory-Coast, Republic of Dahomey, Republic of Gabon, Haute-Volta, Republic of Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Chad and Togo.

 This agreement had a five-year validity and ratified the Europe–Africa association. It made provisions for a preferential free-trade area between the EEC and EAMA based on reciprocity, as well as grants to ACP countries through the European Development Fund (EDF), which was meant to support developmental, economic and social efforts of the EAMA. The stakes were high for Europe as it wanted by all means to prevent former French and Belgian colonies from falling into the bosom of communism propounded by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and better still to secure its supplies in tropical produce (banana, oil-yielding plants, sugar, etc.). The Yaoundé I Agreement, renewed in 1969, guaranteed a preferential access for EAMA basic commodities into the European market and the EDF financial aid.12

R. Blein, ‘Des Conventions de Yaoundé à l'Accord de Cotonou: 40 ans de ‘‘ je t'aime, moi non plus’’ !’ (2007), available at http://www.inter-reseaux.org/IMG/pdf/2intro.pdf (accessed 4 June 2014): 4.

With the United Kingdom joining the EEC in 1973, this paved the way for a new state of affairs. The aspirations of many Commonwealth developing countries, spread over many continents, and their wish to belong to the small group of countries of the southern hemisphere, which maintained privileged relations with the EEC, led to the geographical extension of the said group. Thus, at the close of the Yaoundé II Agreement, a new business cooperation agreement was signed at Lomé (Togo) on the 28 February 1975 between 46 states of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, and nine countries of the EEC. At the time of joining the EEC, the United Kingdom offered its former colonies the opportunity to negotiate their future relations with the EEC, by guaranteeing them a treatment as fair as the one EAMA countries received. With the enlargement of the number of developing countries having a privileged business relation with the EEC compared to commonwealth countries of the South out of Africa, notably to former British colonies of the Caribbean and the Pacific, ACP States who signed the Lomé I Agreement,13

ACP–EEC Convention of Lomé (28 February 1975) [1976] JO, L 25/2.

formed a group to coordinate their activities within the framework of the implementation of the Lomé I Convention, and to promote and strengthen existing solidarity between them. This is how the Georgetown Agreement of 6 June 197514

Georgetown agreement (6 June 1975) 1247 RTNU 147.

 created the ACP group of states and endowed it with a permanent structure, namely the Secretariat General. This group took over the Africa and Madagascar Associated States and is now looked upon as an emanation from the Lomé I Convention with a five-year duration. Unlike the Yaoundé Conventions, the Lomé I Convention provides for the setting up of non-reciprocal tariff preferences for exporting goods from the ACP area into the EEC, as well as putting into place exportation stabilising mechanisms (Stabex) whose aim is to compensate for the deficit of exportation revenues for basic agricultural commodities brought about by price fluctuations on the global market. The Lomé I Convention was renewed successively in 1974, 1984 and 1989, and revisited in 1995. From Lomé I to Lomé II15

Second ACP–CEE Convention (31 October 1979) 1278 RTNU 3.

 the ACP...

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