ACP-EU trade cooperation after 2000: An assessment of reciprocal trade preferences

Journal of Modern African Studies

Volumn 36, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 669-692

  McQueen, Matthew ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF READING   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0002701786     PISSN: 0022278X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022278X98002894     Document Type: Article

References (31)

1. The author is grateful to Henri-Bernard Solignac Lecomte of the Overseas Development Institute, London, for a very helpful discussion of these proposals.
2. Guidelines for the negotiation of new co-operation agreements with the African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries, COM(97)537, Brussels 29 Oct. 1997. Recommendation for a Council decision authorising the Commission to negotiate a development partnership agreement with the ACP countries. Draft Commission Communication to the Council, 28 Jan. 1998.
3. Guidelines for the negotiation of new co-operation agreements with the African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries, COM(97)537, Brussels 29 Oct. 1997. Recommendation for a Council decision authorising the Commission to negotiate a development partnership agreement with the ACP countries. Draft Commission Communication to the Council, 28 Jan. 1998.
4. European Commission, Green Paper on relations between the European Union and the ACP countries on the eve of the 21st Century (Luxembourg, 1997).
5. Opening address by Commissioner Pinheiro, 19 June 1997.
6. European Commission, Recommendation (Brussels, 28 Jan. 1998), p. 24.
7. Free Trade Areas: An Appraisal, SEC(95)322 (Brussels, 8 Mar. 1995).
8. Establishment of Free Trade Areas and their Effects on Community Agriculture, SN2295/96 (Brussels, 19 Apr. 1996).
9. European Commission, Green Paper, p. 40.
10. UEMOA (Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine): Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo; UDEAC (Union Douanière et Economique de l'Afrique Centrale): Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon; SADC (Southern African Development Community): South Africa (not included in ACP-EU trade cooperation), Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe; EAC (East African Cooperation): Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania.
11. Least developed: Burundi, Cape Verde, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Rwanda, São Tomé & Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan; other ACP: Ghana, Nigeria.
12. For an analysis, see F. Faroutan 'Regional integration in sub-Saharan Africa; past experience and future prospects', in J. De Melo and A. Panagariya (eds.), New Dimensions in Regional Integration (Cambridge, 1993).
13. World Bank, World Development Indicators 1997 (Washington, 1997); World Trade Organisation, Trade Policy Review: Mauritius 1995 (Geneva, 1996).
14. World Bank, World Development Indicators 1997 (Washington, 1997); World Trade Organisation, Trade Policy Review: Mauritius 1995 (Geneva, 1996).
15. Half the sample had average tariffs ranging from 25-38 per cent with a median value of 32 per cent, while the seven non-LLDCs had a median tariff of 30 per cent. The remaining countries had tariffs of 3-18 per cent with a median value of 14 per cent.
16. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Handbook of International Trade and Development Statistics, 1994 (New York and Geneva, 1995).
17. It is, perhaps, with this general effect in mind that the European Commission in Free Trade Areas: An Appraisal, Brussels SEC(95)322 final, 08.03.1995, states that 'The EU does, however, have an over-riding economic interest in increasing its trade... [and]... stands a good chance of achieving an improvement in its balance of trade with the FTA partner, particularly if the latter has significantly higher tariffs on products which are of interest to EU exporters' (p. 15).
18. See, for example, World Bank, African Development Indicators (Washington, 1995), and World Development Indicators 1997 (Washington, 1997).
19. See, for example, World Bank, African Development Indicators (Washington, 1995), and World Development Indicators 1997 (Washington, 1997).
20. Most African countries which are members of the WTO have declared bound tariff rates well in excess of applied rates, so that there is ample scope, within WTO rules, for such measures, see P. Sorsa, 'Sub-Saharan Africa's own commitments in the Uruguay Round - myth or reality?' The World Economy 19, 3 (1996), 287-305.
21. A. Yeats, 'Do African countries pay more for imports? Yes', World Bank Economic Review, 4 (1990).
22. For further details see B. Hoekman and S. Djanikov,'The European Union's Mediterranean free trade initiative', The World Economy 19, 4 (1996), 387-406.
23. M. K. Nabli, 'The European Union - Tunisia Free Trade Area Agreement and some lessons for South Africa', Paper presented at the Trade and Industrial Policy Secretariat Annual Forum, Johannesburg, 22-23 September 1997.
24. There is a large body of empirical evidence supporting the propositions that trade liberalisation leads to higher growth rates, and that economies which perform poorly are characterised by low levels of trade policy reform: see C. Kirkpatrick and J. Weiss, 'Trade policy reforms and performance in Africa in the 1980s', Journal of Modern African Studies, 33, 2 (1995), 285-298.
25. European Commission, Green Paper, p. 41.
26. Only eight of the forty-eight African members of the ACP Group (excluding South Africa) are not, currently, members of the WTO, and have not applied for membership.
27. For an analysis of these issues in the context of NAFTA and the Europe Agreements, see R. J. Wonnacott, 'Trade and investment in a hub and spoke system versus a free trade area', and A. Enders and R. J. Wonnacott 'The liberalisation of East-West European trade: hubs, spokes and further complication', The World Economy 19, 3 (1996), 237-52 and 253-72.
28. For an analysis of these issues in the context of NAFTA and the Europe Agreements, see R. J. Wonnacott, 'Trade and investment in a hub and spoke system versus a free trade area', and A. Enders and R. J. Wonnacott 'The liberalisation of East-West European trade: hubs, spokes and further complication', The World Economy 19, 3 (1996), 237-52 and 253-72.
29. Wonnacott, 'Trade and investment', p. 246.
30. Sorsa, 'Sub-Saharan Africa's own commitments'.
31. Patrick A. Messerlin, 'MFN-based free trade and regional trade: what role for the European Community?', EU/LDC News 4, 3 (1997), 1-11.