European Union and Africa: Two decades of Lomé

Abstract

In light of the fact that the most recent Lomé Convention is currently being renegotiated, this study attempts to assess the overall impact of the first three Lomé Conventions on the trade flows of a selected group of African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries (ACP) to the European Union (EU). A brief summary of the major findings is that the Lomé Conventions had no detectable impact on ACP countries' trade with the EU, except in the case of agricultural products during the Lomé I period and that ACP countries did better than non-ACP countries in their traditional markets only, i.e., Yaoundé ACP with the original six members of the EU and the Commonwealth ACP with the United Kingdom.