Suchergebnisse

The negotiation of post-Lome economic cooperation arrangements between the European Union and the African-Caribbean-Pacific Group ended its first phase in February 2000 with the signing of the Treaty of Cotonou. For Caribbean actors, the Cotonou negotiations marked a significant watershed in the adaptation of their foreign policies and diplomatic strategies to cope with a globalized international environment. The issues and themes addressed in Cotonou demonstrate the collision of development concepts forged in the 1970s with the Neoliberalism of the 1980s and 1990s. Cotonou symbolizes the transition from one economic order to another. Its negotiation involved the establishment of new diplomatic and administrative structures in the Caribbean and the participation of many interest groups not previously involved in such diplomatic activity. It became the forerunner to even more complex negotiations in the World Trade Organization and the free Trade Area of the Americas. This paper explores the Caribbean role and experiences in the negotiation of the Cotonou Treaty and the lessons of this diplomatic exercise for future multilateral trade negotiations. Resumen: Tocando en la misma cuerda: La diplomacia caribeña y el acuerdo de CotonouLa negociación de los acuerdos de cooperación económica tras los acuerdos de Lome entre la Unión Europea y el Grupo África-Caribe-Pacífico concluyó su primera fase en febrero de 2000 con la firma del Tratado de Cotonou. Para los participantes caribeños, las negociaciones de Cotonou señalaron un importante y crítico momento en la adaptación de sus políticas exteriores y estrategias diplomáticas para funcionar en un ambiente internacional globalizado. Los problemas y temas tratados en Cotonou reflejan el choque de conceptos de desarrollo forjados en los años setenta, con el neoliberalismo de los años ochenta y noventa. Cotonou simboliza la transición de un orden económico a otro. Su negociación implicó el establecimiento de nuevas estructuras diplomáticas y administrativas en el Caribe y la incorporación de muchos grupos de interés que no participaban previamente en esas actividades diplomáticas. Se convirtió en el precursor de negociaciones todavía más complejas en la Organización Mundial del Comercio y el Área de Libre Comercio de las Américas. En este artículo exploramos el papel y experiencias del Caribe en la negociación del Tratado de Cotonou y las lecciones aprendidas en este ejercicio diplomático para futuras negociaciones comerciales multilaterales.

On June 23, 2000, after eighteen months of negotiations, the European Union (EU) and its Member States signed a new partnership agreement with the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) states in Cotonou, Benin, called the Cotonou Agreement. This twenty-year partnership agreement with seventy-seven ACP states replaced the Lome Convention, which had provided the structure for trade and cooperation between the ACP states and the EU since 1975. The Cotonou Agreement focuses on poverty reduction as its principal objective, which will be achieved through political dialogue, development aid, and closer economic and trade cooperation. This Note discusses the structure of the Cotonou Agreement and analyzes the various effects the Agreement will have on the ACP countries, particularly, the countries of the Caribbean. It concludes that, despite its objectives, the Agreement will likely contribute to a decline in the economies of the ACP nations.

This masters thesis discusses the recently concluded treaty between the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries on the one hand and the European Union (EU) on the other. This Agreement having signed in Cotonou, Benin, is known as the Cotonou Agreement. The Cotonou Agreement is the latest in a series of conventions between the two parties that have their genesis in the late 1950s. The primary goal of this work was to find out to what extent, if at all, the newly signed Agreement is likely to contribute to the economic renaissance of the ACP countries. In so doing it traces development of the ACP-EU conventions right from their very beginning. The performance of the relationship to date is examined with a view to determining whether the lessons learnt therefrom have been incorporated in the new Agreement. There is a detailed analysis of the trade and aid provisions of the Cotonou Agreement. Apart from the economic provisions, other major provisions and developments of the ACP-EU Conventions are discussed with a view to providing a wholesome picture.

A contribution to a symposium, "Marxism and African Realities," explores European Union (EU) policies related to the African, Caribbean, & Pacific (ACP) group of developing states, drawing on Stephen Gill's Gramscian notion of hegemony as self-reflexive, actively constructed, & incorporating both consensual & coercive features. It is argued that the EU has played an important role in redesigning development strategies to complement the global shift to neoliberal accumulation that targets the increasingly integrated project to "lock-in" the gains of capital over labor. Complementary projects of "redesigning" & "locking-in" are applied to the Lome & Cotonou Agreements to show that they represent a hegemonic shift in the form of a transition away from the social-democratic compromise of the welfare & developmental state. The process of redesigning ACP countries into regional economic partnership agreements leads many African governments to see conformity to World Trade Organization rules as the only viable developmental option. Consequently, these states surrender important future policy options & commodification is expanded to unprecedented levels. Resistance to neoliberal global constitutionalism is discussed. 58 References. J. Lindroth

The EU is currently negotiating a successor to its Cotonou Agreement of year 2000 with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states. The political and economic con­text has changed enormously over the past two decades, with trade relations between the EU and the more developed ACP countries now largely regulated by bilateral and regional Economic Partnership Agreements. Since 2015, in line with international sustainability targets, social and environmental aspects must be taken into account in international treaties, while in 2018 the African Union (AU) agreed to establish an African Continental Free Trade Area. A successor to Cotonou offers an opportunity to modernise the rules on issues including investment, services and migration. This could also generate greater interest in the talks in Germany and the EU. But the cooperation need to be placed on a new foundation and the African states will have to decide whether they want to negotiate together, as a continent.

"The African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Group of States: From the Lomé Convention to the Cotonou Agreement and Beyond" published on by Oxford University Press.

The EU is currently negotiating a successor to its Cotonou Agreement of year 2000 with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states. The political and economic con­text has changed enormously over the past two decades, with trade relations between the EU and the more developed ACP countries now largely regulated by bilateral and regional Economic Partnership Agreements. Since 2015, in line with international sustainability targets, social and environmental aspects must be taken into account in international treaties, while in 2018 the African Union (AU) agreed to establish an African Continental Free Trade Area. A successor to Cotonou offers an opportunity to modernise the rules on issues including investment, services and migration. This could also generate greater interest in the talks in Germany and the EU. But the cooperation need to be placed on a new foundation and the African states will have to decide whether they want to negotiate together, as a continent. (Autorenreferat)