Directorate-General for Trade

Africa, Caribbean, Pacific

Relations between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP) have developed as a unique combination of aid, trade and political cooperation.

These special EU-ACP relations date back to the Treaty of Rome (1957). At that time, the first of today's ACP countries (mainly in Africa), as dependent countries and territories of some of the founding Member States, were associated with the Community, in order "to promote (their) economic and social development… and to establish close economic relations between them and the Community as a whole" (Article 131 of the Treaty).

Although the legal basis for relations with the ACP countries has changed over the years, the spirit and the objectives of this association have been maintained. Following independence in the 1960s, the first Yaoundé Convention was negotiated with 18 of these former "countries and territories" (1963): the Associated African States and Madagascar (AASMs). Yaoundé II followed in 1969. Then, after the accession of the United Kingdom to the Community, came the first Lomé Convention, signed in 1975 (with 46 ACP countries), Lomé II in 1979 (58 ACP countries), Lomé III in 1984 (65 ACP countries) and Lomé IV in 1989 (68 ACP countries, extended in 1995 to 70 ACP countries).

The EU's relations with the ACP are today governed by the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement, signed in Cotonou on 23 June 2000 and concluded for a period of 20 years. At the same time, the remaining overseas countries and territories (OCTs) continue to be associated with the Community through successive Association decisions of the Council.

At present, 78 ACP countries are signatories to the Cotonou Agreement: 48 African states, covering all of sub-Saharan Africa, 15 states in the Caribbean and 15 states in the Pacific (the Democratic Republic of East Timor acceded to Cotonou Agreement in May 2003; ratification by East Timor is still pending). Out of the 50 least developed countries (also covered by the EU's Everything But Arms initiative of February 2001), 41 are ACP countries. South Africa is a signatory to the Cotonou Agreement but its membership of the ACP Group is qualified (Protocol 3) on South Africa attached to the Cotonou Agreement). The provisions of the bilateral Agreement on Trade, Development and Cooperation between the European Community, its Member States and South Africa signed in Pretoria on 11 October 1999, take precedence over the provisions of the Cotonou Agreement.

The legal framework for trade: From the Cotonou trade provisions to the Economic Partnership Agreements

For more on economic partnerships with the ACP region, see Economic partnerships

As was the case under Lomé, provisions on economic and trade cooperation are an integral part of the Cotonou Agreement. They are incorporated in Part III of the Agreement, "Cooperation Strategies", together with the provisions on "Development Strategies". A common provision stresses that development strategies and economic and trade cooperation are interlinked and complementary and that efforts undertaken in both areas must be mutually reinforcing.

In order to enhance the contribution of trade to development, the ACP States and the Community decided to overhaul their previous trade relations. Whereas these had been primarily based, since Lomé I, on non-reciprocal trade preferences granted by the Community to ACP exports, the Parties agreed to enter into economic integration agreements - concluding new WTO-compatible trading arrangements, progressively removing barriers to trade between them and enhancing cooperation in all areas related to trade.

To this end, comprehensive and interim EU-ACP Economic Partnership Agreements have replaced the trade chapters of the Cotonou Agreement since 1 January 2008. To enhance the dialogue on EU-ACP trade relations, EPAs and multilateral trade negotiations in particular, a joint ACP-EC Ministerial Trade Committee has been established.

1. Source: Eurostat and World Bank ¶