Public Agenda (Accra)
Wisdom Dzidedi Donkor
3 October 2008
Various leaders from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states are meeting in Accra to find solutions to the numerous problems confronting their member states. Some of the issues being discussed for possible solutions include rising food prices and their effects on development of the ACP states.
Other issues under on the table are energy crisis, especially electricity and oil prices. Two major issues being given prominence at the meeting are the state of negotiations on the controversial Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union and climate change, a major concern for small island states.
Some leaders taking part in the 6TH Summit of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Heads of State and Government include President John Agyekum Kufuor, President Runaldo Ronald Venetiaan of Suriname, Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo Peter Pinda, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Michael Somare, Vice President Teima Onorio of Kiribati and Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashr. Some 40 Heads of State and governments, and 1,500 participants from 79 countries are taking part in the four-day summit, which is taking place in Accra.
The African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group was created in 1975 following the signing of the Georgetown Agreement in Guyana.
Prior to that in 1963, negotiations between 18 African States and the six European countries resulted in the signing of the Yaoundé Convention between the European Communities and the 'Associated African States and Madagascar' for a five year period, (1964-1969).
The Yaoundé Convention was essentially concerned with free trade areas under its umbrella and European products received preferential treatment on the markets of the associated African countries and vice versa.
This free trade agreement was also backed up by a financial assistance package - the 2nd and 3rd EDFs for Yaoundé I and Yaoundé II. The second Yaoundé Convention (1971-1976) was signed in 1969.
As soon as Yaoundé I was signed, the newly independent English-speaking countries voiced a strong dislike to the convention they saw as 'shaped' to preserving links between France and its territories.
Their concerns were shared by the European Economic Community (EEC) such as Germany and the Nertherlands who, since the signing of the treaty of Rome, had been inclined towards a development policy with a broad spectrum.
To bring about these changes, a special bilateral agreement was signed with Nigeria in 1969 but was never ratified due to the civil war in Biafra. Another agreement, separate from the Yaoundé Convention, the Arusha (trade), was signed in 1969 with three East African countries-Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. This agreement, implemented on January 1, 1971, at the same time as the Yaoundé II Convention and for the same period, brought these three countries into the convention. Mauritius joined the convention at a later stage in 1972.
However, by the beginning of the 1970s, Europe's development policy was still at a crossroads, with questions being raised about the direction to take, highlighting cooperation with Africa and openings towards other regions. A memorandum of the European Commission put forward the options.
In 19773, the United Kingdom (plus Ireland and Denmark) joined the European Community. This membership was to put everything in a new light. One of the protocols of the Act of Accession opened the door to an extension of European development policy to an array of Commonwealth countries. These were countries not just in Africa but in the Caribbean and the Pacific too.
As of August 1973, 21 Commonwealth nations were invited to negotiate an association or trade agreement with the European Community that would possibly replace the Yaoundé Convention.
All the independent nations of sub-Saharan Africa, except South Africa were present at the negotiation table. They also included the non-Commonwealth countries of Ethiopia, Sudan, Liberia, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.
The negotiations that were opened between the European Community and its group of around 45 countries were to prove a unique experience. All these newly independent countries were used to meetings within large frameworks such as the UN or AU, where the only matters discussed were political.
Negotiations began at the end of July 1973 with a deadline set on the expiry of Yaoundé II at the end of January 1975. The Lomé Agreement was signed immediately after the deadline at the beginning of February 1975 by EEC and 46 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States.
Third World thinking bound them together and forged their common interests. They surprised the Europeans by announcing in the spring of 1974, through their spokesperson, Babacar Ba, with regard to the Lomé IV Convention. "You have before you not three groups expressing harmonized positions with one voice, but a single group of ACP countries which want to recognize their common destiny and the unshakeable desire to achieve positive results at these negotiations."
This was how the ACP was born and its constitution was finalized with the ratification of the Georgetown Agreement of June 6, 1975, just a few months after the signing of Lomé I on February 28, 1975 by the 44 ACP countries.
Over the years, the ACP membership has swelled to 79 nations. The cooperation framework between the ACP group and the European Union was finalized at the Lomé Convention and was signed by 46 ACP States and 15 EU countries in Togo in 1975.
It generally, spelt out a system of tariff preferences, which gave ACP countries access to European market as well as accessibility to special funds meant to maintain price stability in agricultural and mining products. The Lomé Agreement was succeeded by the Cotonou Agreement signed in Benin in June 2000 and revised in 2005.
The ACP Group has its own internal decision-making process. It also has joint bodies with the EU that allow interplay between two sides especially in relation to matters of mutual interests.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Public Agenda. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
