Analysis of the Advantages and Disadvantages of Lomé Agreement on North-South Cooperation

The Lomé Agreement accelerated North-South cooperation.

[Abstract]1On February 28th, 975, 46 developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific and 9 countries in the European Economic Community signed the Lomé Agreement of the European Economic Community in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. In the past 30 years, Lomé Agreement has been continuously revised and extended, but its basic goal of "aid-trade" has never changed. This has had a great and far-reaching impact on the world political and economic order, North-South relations and international trade rules. After the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the most representative trade dispute handled was the "banana war" between the EU and the United States. The fuse that triggered this trade war was the Lomé Agreement. Look at the Lomé Agreement.

From the development process, we can see the vitality of mutually beneficial cooperation between North and South.

1On February 28th, 975, 46 developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific and 9 countries in the European Economic Community signed the Lomé Agreement of the European Economic Community in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. In the past 30 years, Lomé Agreement has been continuously revised and extended, but its basic goal of "aid-trade" has never changed. This has had a great and far-reaching impact on the world political and economic order, North-South relations and international trade rules.

Detonate the banana war

After the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the most representative trade dispute handled was the "banana war" between the EU and the United States. The fuse that triggered this trade war was the Lomé Agreement.

Today, 40% of the world's banana exports come from Latin America and the Caribbean. In Latin America, banana production is mainly carried out by large manors, which are mostly run by local landlords and American multinational companies (Chiquita, etc.). ). Due to the huge production scale, sufficient funds and advanced equipment, a large number of pesticides and fertilizers are used, with high output and low cost. In the Caribbean, banana production is mainly carried out by independent small farmers, with little capital, small scale and high cost, but only a small amount of fertilizers and pesticides are used. Traditionally, small farmers sell bananas to Geest, a British multinational company, and then ship them to Europe for sale.

The EU has the largest banana consumption market in the world, importing about 3.9 million tons of bananas every year, nearly 6 billion US dollars. According to the Lomé Agreement, the EU gives priority to ACP countries that maintain special economic and trade exchanges with them. This import distribution system has greatly affected the export of bananas from Central and South America to the EU. Although the preferential banana import in Lomé Agreement only accounts for 2% of the European market, American banana export companies put pressure on the US government to expand the market. 1993, the United States formally made relevant representations to Britain, which refused to import bananas from Central and South America on the grounds that the EU and ACP signed the Lomé Agreement. 1995 after the establishment of the WTO, the United States and Latin American countries accused Britain of the banana trade preference set in the Lomé Agreement through the WTO, which was actually discriminating against other countries' agricultural exports and violating the principle of free trade.

After many contests, 1997, the WTO ruled that the United States won the case. After the EU revised the relevant regulations, it began to implement the new banana import regulations (so-called "fair trade" operation) from 1999, but the United States believed that the EU's new measures were "changing the soup without changing the medicine" and filed a lawsuit with the WTO again. The WTO once again ruled that the EU lost the case. Under the authorization of the WTO, the United States imposed a punitive tariff of 100% on some products of the European Union. In order to avoid the escalation of the trade war, Europe and the United States have conducted several rounds of consultations on the basis of relevant WTO laws. After balancing the interests of all parties, European and American trade representatives reached an agreement in July 20001year, ending the banana war for nine years. The European Union has abolished the banana discrimination policy against Central American countries, and the United States has also given up imposing punitive tariffs on EU goods.

The goal is forever.

At the beginning of the establishment of the European Community, it established "associated countries" relations with some African countries. We have successively signed the Yaoundé Associated Country Agreement and Arusha Agreement with Cameroon and other African countries and three East African countries (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda), which have defined the cooperation framework of the two sides in trade and assistance. The first Lomé Agreement was signed in Lomé in February 1975 and came into effect in April 1976, with a validity period of five years, replacing the two expired agreements. Lomé Agreement stipulates that the EU will provide preferential trade arrangements to ACP, and it also stipulates that the EU will provide 3.36 billion European currency units (about 4.2 billion US dollars) to ACP within five years. 1979, 10 months, 1984, 12 months, 1989, 12 months, the lomé agreement was amended and renewed three times.

In June 2000, the EU and ACP countries signed the fifth Lomé Agreement-Cotonou Agreement in Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin. The agreement is valid for 20 years, which mainly stipulates that democracy, human rights, the rule of law and good governance are the basic principles for the implementation of the agreement, and the EU has the right to suspend assistance to countries that violate the above principles; The EU gradually abolished the one-way preferential trade policy towards ACP and replaced it with free trade. The two sides finally established a free trade zone and completed the integration with WTO rules. The EU will set up the ninth European Development Fund with a total amount of 654.38+03.5 billion euros to provide assistance to ACP, and allocate 654.38+00 billion euros from the balance of previous development funds to subsidize heavily indebted poor countries. The Cotonou Agreement came into effect in 2002, but except for the financial protocol, most of the provisions came into effect immediately after the agreement was formally signed on May 3, 2000, and the Lomé Agreement, which guided the 25-year trade and aid relationship between the EU and the ACP, was immediately terminated. By the end of 2002, a total of 92 countries had joined the Lomé Convention, including 65,438+05 EU countries and 77 ACP countries (including 48 African countries, 65,438+05 Caribbean countries and 65,438+04 Pacific countries).

Lomé Agreement is the earliest, longest-lasting, most ambitious and comprehensive economic and trade agreement signed between developed and developing countries. Although Lomé Agreement has been revised many times, its basic goal of "assisting trade" has never changed.

There is still a long way ahead.

Looking at the development of Lomé Agreement, we can see the vitality of mutually beneficial cooperation between North and South. First of all, since the implementation of the agreement, the total number of countries in the North and South has been increasing, from 55 to 92. Second, the content and scope of North-South cooperation are constantly expanding. The European Union (post-EU) gives ACP special preferential tariff treatment without asking ACP to give the same treatment, with the aim of promoting and accelerating the economic, cultural and social development of ACP and ensuring equality and mutual benefit of both contracting parties. Therefore, Lomé Agreement initiated a new mode of economic cooperation between North and South, which is of great positive significance to the development of North-South relations. Third, although the negotiation of renewing the agreement is always difficult, it can always reach a new agreement that is more beneficial to developing countries and pushes forward North-South cooperation. Fourth, the new agreement reached each time is generally more conducive to the two sides seeking more comprehensive cooperation in various fields and establishing more stable and reasonable international economic relations.

However, the Lomé-style "North-South cooperation" is far from fundamentally changing the unequal and unfair economic relations between the North and the South: First, due to the huge difference in economic development level, there are still quite serious unequal exchanges between the two countries in trade; Second, the preferential tariff treatment of the EU is often accompanied by numerous restrictions of various non-tariff barriers. In addition, since WTO rules do not allow discriminatory treatment among developing countries, the new trade arrangement can only take the form of regional economic cooperation allowed by WTO rules. Moreover, with the strengthening of global trade liberalization, the practical significance of existing trade preferences will continue to decline; Third, compared with the actual needs of many poor and weak ACP countries to develop their economies, there is still a big gap between the subsidies used to stabilize the export income of ACP countries and the financial assistance given to these countries; Fourth, the trade diversion effect of the EU's eastward expansion has increasingly adverse effects on ACP countries. From the mid-1970s to the end of 1980s, Lomé Agreement ensured that ACP countries kept nearly 7% of the EU's import market. However, in the 1990s, although the number of ACP countries participating in the Agreement increased from the initial 46 to 765,438+0, its market share in the EU decreased from 65,438+0, from 6.7% in 1985 to 4.2% in 1999. Fifth, the EU has always been the largest provider of aid funds from developed countries to developing countries. However, with the end of the Cold War and the beginning of EU's eastward expansion, the focus of EU's foreign aid has shifted to Eastern European countries and Russia. Prior to this, ACP countries have been the main beneficiaries of European foreign aid. From 1970 to 1974, the ACP holds 13 seats among the 15 countries receiving the most aid, while 1997 has only two seats left; Sixth, although the Lomé Agreement has achieved initial important results in realizing North-South cooperation and changing the unequal relations between the North and the South, it is still "a long way to go, Xiu Yuan" from the overall goal of establishing a new international economic order.

Lomé Agreement

Lomé Convention

1On February 28th, 975, 46 developing countries in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (hereinafter referred to as ACP countries) and 9 countries with European economies held a meeting in Lomé, Togo, and signed a trade and economic agreement, which was called the Lomé Agreement between European economies and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.

By the end of 1999, 86 countries had participated in the fourth Lomé Agreement. Among them, the European Union (EU) has 15 countries: Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy, Britain, Austria, Finland and Sweden. ACP 7 1 country, there are 48 countries in Africa: Ethiopia, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Togo, Eritrea, Cape Verde, Gambia, Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Gabon, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Comoros, C? te d 'Ivoire, Kenya, Lesotho. Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Seychelles, Sao Tome and Principe, Swaziland, Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Chad and Central Africa; Caribbean 15 countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Haiti; Eight countries in the Pacific: Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Samoa.

Organization (1) Council of Ministers, composed of one minister from each signatory country. There will be two co-chairs, one from each side. The Committee holds a regular meeting every year. The secretariat of the Council is located in Brussels, Belgium. (2) The Ambassadors' Committee is composed of ambassadors sent by signatory countries, and the chairman is appointed by both parties in turn. The committee meets at least once every six months. (3) Joint Assembly, in which each ACP country is represented by one representative and the European Parliament is represented by an equal number of representatives. The co-chairman is composed of one person from each side. The joint meeting is held twice a year. (4) The Industrial Development Center is located in Brussels and is responsible for promoting investment in ACP countries. (5) The Technical Center for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation, located in Vakhnin, Netherlands, is responsible for providing information, research and training in agriculture and related fields to ACP countries.

At the beginning of its establishment, Europe established "associated countries" relations with some African countries. We have successively signed the Yaoundé Associated Country Agreement and Arusha Agreement with Cameroon and other African countries and three East African countries (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda), which have defined the cooperation framework of the two sides in trade and assistance. The first Lomé Agreement was signed in Lomé on February 28th, 1975, and took effect on April 28th, 1976, with a validity period of five years, replacing the two expired agreements. The new agreement stipulates that the EU will provide 3.36 billion European currency units (about 4.2 billion US dollars) in financial assistance to ACP countries within five years. The second Lomé Agreement was renewed in Togo in June 1979, and came into effect in April 1980, with a validity period of five years. This time, the assistance provided by the European Community increased to 5.607 billion European currency units (about 7.457 billion US dollars), and the number of ACP countries participating in the signing of the agreement increased to 58. The second agreement introduced the mechanism of stabilizing mineral products export income (Sysmin) to ensure the stable income of ACP countries exporting mineral products to Europe. The third Lomé Agreement was renewed in Togo on February 8, 1984, and entered into force on May 8, 1986, with a validity period of five years (1March 19851-1February 28, 1990). The agreement defines the equal partnership and interdependence between the two sides. According to the agreement, the EU will provide 8.5 billion European currency units (about 9.35 billion US dollars) in financial assistance to ACP countries within five years. The number of ACP countries that signed the agreement has increased to 65.

The fourth Lomé Agreement was renewed in Togo on 1989 12 15, and the validity period is 10 year. Its trade terms came into effect. In view of the slow progress in the ratification process of the agreement by the contracting parties, the Council of Ministers of the European Community decided to postpone its full implementation date by four months from the original date of 1 991March1and correspondingly extend the deadline of the third agreement to June 30 of the same year. According to the provisions of Lomé IV, the EU's assistance to ACP countries can be divided into two stages: in the first stage, that is, in the first five years, it provided 654.38+02 billion European currency units (about 654.38+03.2 billion US dollars), of which 654.38+08 billion was allocated to the European Development Fund and 654.38+02 billion was loaned by the European Investment Bank. In the second phase (1995-2000), the total amount of aid was146.25 million European currency units (about19 billion US dollars), an increase of 22% compared with the first phase, of which129.67 million was allocated to the European Development Fund,1. In addition, the EU's two funds for stabilizing the export income mechanism of agricultural products and mineral products of ACP countries increased by 62% and 16% respectively, reaching150,000 and 480 million European currency units. The main contents of the new agreement are: (1) relax the restrictions on products from ACP countries entering the European market, so that the value-added parts of manufactured goods from these countries can enter the European market only when they reach 45% (previously 60%), and their export products enjoying special subsidies will be increased by two items: gold and uranium; Since 1992, the European Community has opened the wine market to ACP countries, reduced the import restrictions on their agricultural products such as citrus, strawberries and tomatoes, and did not ask these countries to refund the price compensation they claimed according to relevant regulations. (2) It is forbidden for the member States of the European Community to engage in any toxic, dangerous and nuclear waste transactions with ACP countries. (3) Allocate 18% of the total financial assistance to support the ACP countries in implementing their economic restructuring plans. 1995165438+1October, the EU and ACP countries signed a new protocol as a modification and supplement to the Fourth Lomé Agreement. For the first time, the Protocol links democracy and human rights issues with EU aid, and stipulates that the amount of aid received by ACP countries depends on their economic operation. The EU has also changed from being solely responsible for issuing loans to directly participating in the formulation of aid projects.

1On September 30th, 1998, the EU and ACP countries held formal negotiations in Brussels on the renewal of the Fifth Lomé Agreement. The main contents are as follows: (1) On the establishment of a free trade zone. The EU believes that the trend of globalization and liberalization of world trade is becoming more and more obvious, and the existing economic and trade cooperation between the EU and ACP countries has been difficult to adapt to the changes in the situation. In addition, under the pressure of the World Trade Organization, it is advocated to cancel the trade preferences enjoyed by ACP countries and establish a free trade zone as the goal of both sides in the 2 1 century. ACP countries demand that the trade preference system be retained. (2) Linking development assistance with the human rights situation. Since the EU proposed to amend the Lomé Agreement in September 1993 and added the content of "democratic intervention" to the revised protocol of the Fourth Lomé Agreement in June 1995, it continued to insist on linking aid with human rights in this negotiation, and also proposed to determine the aid standard according to the per capita GDP of the recipient country. The ACP countries are dissatisfied with this, and believe that the EU has the responsibility and obligation to provide assistance, and oppose attaching political conditions and "labels" to aid. (3) On the issue of tax preference. The two sides agreed to cancel the preferential tax on industrial products and 95% agricultural products of ACP countries in the original agreement, but there were differences on the transition period. (4) Some goods from ACP countries enter the EU market. According to the original agreement, agricultural products such as bananas, rum, sugar, rice and beef produced in ACP countries can enter the EU countries duty-free within a specified amount, and the excess needs to be taxed. The EU proposes to keep this agreement temporarily, depending on the situation after 2004. ACP countries will ask the new agreement to keep this. (5) The "full accumulation" system of origin. According to the original agreement, products from ACP countries or EU countries can be regarded as original products and enjoy preferential tax treatment after further processing and production in ACP countries. After 2005, the EU initially plans to open its markets duty-free to all products from the 48 least developed countries in the ACP region, and further simplify the existing rules of origin. ACP countries welcome this, but hope that it can be implemented as soon as possible. (6) Cuba's accession to the Lomé Agreement. ACP countries actively support Cuba's accession, but the EU only allows Cuba to participate in the negotiations as an observer, and its human rights and democratic status are the conditions for formal accession.

During the period of 1999, the EU and ACP countries held four ACP-EU ministerial meetings in Dakar (February), Brussels (July and 65438+February), Dominica * * and Santo Domingo, China (165438+1October) respectively.

At the beginning of 2000, the two sides resumed negotiations in Brussels, and ACP countries made major concessions on human rights, trade preferences and other issues. On February 3, the two sides reached an agreement on signing the fifth Lomé Agreement. The agreement is valid for 20 years, and its main provisions are: democracy, human rights, the rule of law and good governance are the basic principles for the implementation of the agreement, and the EU has the right to suspend assistance to countries that violate the above principles; The EU gradually abolished the one-way preferential trade policy towards ACP countries and replaced it with free trade. The two sides finally established a free trade zone and completed the integration with WTO rules. The EU will set up the ninth European Development Fund with a total amount of 654.38+03.5 billion euros to provide assistance to ACP countries, and allocate 654.38+00 billion euros from the balance of previous development funds to subsidize heavily indebted poor countries. The fifth Lomé Agreement will come into effect in 2002, but most of the provisions except the financial protocol will come into effect immediately after the formal signing of the agreement on May 3, 2000, and the fourth Lomé Agreement will be terminated immediately.