Lome Conventions
Summary of Lome Conventions
A series of trade and economic assistance agreements between the European Economic Community (read this and related legal terms for further details) and various developing nations, former colonies of EEC members. The Treaty Of Rome (read this and related legal terms for further details) which established the EEC provided for a special relationship between the Community and former colonies. In 1964, the (then) six members of the EEC concluded the first Yaounde Convention with eighteen African states and Madagascar; the agreement provided for commercial, financial, and technical assistance. A second Yaoundé Convention was signed in 1969.
The entry of Great Britain into the EEC in 1973 required a reexamination of the relationship between the Community and former colonial possessions, now independent. A series of discussions between the EEC and the forty-six African-Caribbean-Pacific states (known collectively as the ACP countries) resulted in the first Lomé Convention (Lomé I) in 1975. A second agreement (Lomé II) was concluded between the EEC and 58 ACP countries in 1979, to run through February 1985.
The current agreement (Lomé III) was executed December 8, 1984, among representatives of the EEC and 64 developing nations. During the five- year life of Lomé III, the ACP countries will receive financial aid of 8.5 billion ECU (European Currency Units [^.v.]); at time of signing, the ECU was valued at approximately .75 U. S. dollars.
Lomé III incorporates several innovations over prior agreements, including a statement of human rights and denunciation of apartheid; conditions for private investment in the ACP countries; and new rules which permit funding of distressed industries and imports. Recognizing that many ACP countries remain dependent upon agricultural and mineral commodities for export earnings, Lomé III continues and expands the Stabex and Sysmin programs. Stabex is a fund from which a participating developing country may receive financial assistance when the world price for certain agricultural commodities falls below prescribed levels. Sysmin provides support to countries dependent upon mineral
exports.
EEC financial support of Lomé III for the period
1985-89 is as follows:
Project Resources
Grants (millions of ECUs) 4,860
Stabex 925
Sysmin 415
Special Loans 600
Risk Capital 600
European Investment Bank Loans 1,100
8,500
It is expected that Angola and Mozambique will
join the 64 nations already participating in Lome
III. Those nations are: Antigua & Barbuda Jamaica
Bahamas Kenya
Barbados Kiribati
Belize Lesotho
Benin Liberia
Botswana Madagascar
Burkina Fasso Malawi
Burundi Mali
Cameroon Mauritania
Cape Verde Mauritius
Central African Republic Niger
Chad Nigeria
Comoros Papua New Guinea
Congo Rwanda
Djibouti St. Christopher and Nevis
Dominica St. Lucia
Equatorial Guinea St. Vincent and
Ethiopia Grenadines
Fiji Sao Tome and Principe
Gabon Senegal
Gambia Seychelles
Ghana Sierra Leone
Grenada Solomon Islands
Guinea Somalia
Guinea-Bissau Sudan
Guyana Surinam
Ivory Coast Swaziland
Tanzania Western Samoa
Togo Vanuatu
Tonga Zaire
Trinidad and Tobago Zambia
Tuvalu Zimbabwe
Uganda
(Main Author: William J. Miller)
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