Abstract
The paper discusses trade relations between the European Union and African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries over the period from 2000 to 2014. The analysis is based on the data retrieved from the UN Comtrade Database. The EU-ACP trade is analyzed in seven regional groups (Central Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa, East African Community, Southern African Development Community, West Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific) separately. The EU has been negotiating Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with those groups of countries since 2008. The European Union is a major trading partner for ACP countries. However, it has been gradually losing its role as their most important trading partner for Asian giants. The EU dominates in trade with West Africa and the Caribbean countries. China and India have been more important trading partners for Eastern and Southern Africa since 2007, Pacific (2009), East African Community and Southern African Development Community (2010), and Central Africa (2014). Moreover, the Asian giants’ trade with 80 ACP countries has been surpassing the EU-ACP trade since 2012. It seems that South-South cooperation which has been intensively developed by China and India with ACP countries wins with the EU-led trade liberalization and its EPAs.
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Notes
- 1.
The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP Group) was formally created by the Georgetown Agreement and by the first Lomé Convention signed in 1975. Initially, ACP Group was composed of 46 countries. In 2016, the group comprised 49 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, 16 from the Caribbean and 15 from the Pacific.
- 2.
Central Africa covers countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe, Eastern and Southern Africa: Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, East African Community: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, Southern African Development Community: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland, West Africa countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivorie, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo, Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago, and Pacific: Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
- 3.
- 4.
CARIFORUM includes: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, the Dominican Republic Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
- 5.
Haiti signed the agreement in 2009.
- 6.
As of February 16, 2016, 40 ACP countries are classified as LDCs: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu and Zambia (UN 2016).
- 7.
China implemented duty-free, quota-free (DFQF) market access program for LDCs in 2010 and India Duty Free Tariff Preference Scheme in 2008.
- 8.
Since 2011, West Africa has been the largest supplier for the EU.
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Nowak, W. (2017). Trade Between the European Union and African-Caribbean-Pacific Countries. In: Bilgin, M., Danis, H., Demir, E., Can, U. (eds) Regional Studies on Economic Growth, Financial Economics and Management. Eurasian Studies in Business and Economics, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54112-9_19
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