This book critically engages with a long tradition of scholarly work that conceives of the European Union as a peculiar international actor that pursues a value-based, normatively oriented and development-friendly agenda in its relations with international partners. The EU is a pivotal player in...

Several studies highlight that exporters in developing countries face substantial trade costs. To reduce these costs, a few developed countries mainly Canada, the EU, Japan and the USA granted preferential market access to these exporters. We assess whether these preferential accesses have...

Integration through law -- Regional trade agreements as legal regimes -- The EU as a global actor -- The normative legal character of sustainable development -- Transforming the ACP-EU 'special' relationship -- African regionalisms as flexible legal regimes -- Regionalism in Southern Africa --...

Most of the world's developing countries have been colonies under one of the EU Member States. Today the European Union pursues preferential policies (in the form of special legal relationships) towards most of these former colonies. These preferential policies however differ rather...

Since its formation the European Union (EU) has employed a rather complicated policy to ensure high prices to domestic sugar growers and trade preferences to certain sugar exporting countries, e.g. the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group. One result of this policy is that the EU has been...

L'etude du Dr. Cosmas Milton Obote Ochieng, intitulé Questions juridiques et systémiques dans les Accords de partenariat économique: Quelle voie suivre à présent? propose une analyse légale de certaines questions clés sur la relation entre l'OMC et les APE. Voici quelques une de ces...

The paper investigates how abusive use of EPA provisions for sanitary, phytosanitary and technical barriers in EPAs could be an obstacle to market access. The study also promotes experience sharing among different ACP regions in terms of drawing up negotiating positions. The issues covered...

Létude expose une vision commune sur des questions qui pourraient constituer des obstacles sanitaires, phytosanitaires et techniques dans les APE et examine dans quelle mesure un recours abusif à ces dispositions pourrait être un obstacle à l'acces au marché. Létude promeut également le...

Three hundred representatives from social and economic interest groups in the ACP countries and the European Union gathered for a meeting at the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels on 4, 5 and 6 March 2008.

Since early 2008 interim trade agreements between the EU and six regions of ACP countries (respectively sub-groups within the region) are in force. These agreements could be stepping stones towards full Economic Partnership Agreements between the EU and all ACP countries. We estimate the welfare...

This study focuses primarily on trade preferences offered by the European Union (EU) and in particular on the Everything But Arms (EBA) trade preferences regime, which is targeted exclusively on least developed countries (LDCs). Using the gravity model, an estimation of the influence of the EBA...

The direct effects of EPAs on ACP countries arise from the requirement to eliminate tariffs on most imports from the EU. While consumers gain from cheaper imports, the government losses tariff revenue and producers face increased completion, implying adjustment costs. This paper estimates the...

The paper provides an analysis of different rules of origin that currently apply between the EU and the ACP countries in sectors like textile and clothing, and fisheries. With the end of the Cotonou agreement and its replacement by the still incomplete EPAs, the rules of origin provisions...

This issue paper, titled “Environmental Issues in Economic Partnership Agreements: Implications for Developing Countries”, and written by Mrs. Beatrice Dove-Edwin, is a contribution to that process. The paper exhaustively reviews all rules related to trade and environment in several of the...

Since early 2008 interim trade agreements between the EU and six regions of ACP countries (respectively sub-groups within the region) are in force. These agreements could be stepping stones towards full Economic Partnership Agreements between the EU and all ACP countries. We estimate the welfare...

Since early 2008 interim trade agreements between the EU and six regions of ACP countries (respectively sub-groups within the region) are in force. These agreements could be stepping stones towards full Economic Partnership Agreements between the EU and all ACP countries. We estimate the welfare...

The rise and fall of preferential trade -- Understanding the EU-ACP economic partnership agreements: the case of the Cariforum -- European policy diffusion and the politics of regional integration in the Pacific -- Developmentalism and the political economy of trade adjustment in Mauritius --...

Economic opinion is in the process of re-interpreting low levels of uptake of non-reciprocal pre-ferential trade agreements (PTAs) partly in terms of administrative barriers to preference utiliza-tion. Primary amongst these barriers are Rules of Origin. This paper reviews the literature on Rules...