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)