Negotiating the fourth Lomé Convention

The renegotiation of the Lomé Convention began in October 1988 and is scheduled to be concluded at the end of this year. It is one of the most important elements in the EC's formal Community-level development co-operation policy. As such, it sets the tone for EC-ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States) relations and, through its trade provisions, exerts a powerful influence on the economies of its developing country signatories. Among the more prominent issues in the negotiations are the linking of aid with structural adjustment, the role of trade preferences and the impact of completing the EC internal market in 1992. The paper concludes that the ACP's economic decline is one of two major factors that will influence the shape of Lomé in the 1990s; the other is the completion of the Single European Market.