The Lomé Convention: assessing a North-South institutional relationship.

This paper examines the Lomé Convention, an institutional relationship linking the twelve members of the European Community (EC) with sixtynine countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP). The immediate aim of the paper is to take stock of the EC-ACP relationship now that Lomé has been in effect for nearly two decades and has recently been the subject of extensive renegotiations. More broadly, Lomé provides a window on one of the most important processes of the contemporary global system, the growing isolation of large parts of the less developed world from the broader international economy. The paper is divided into three parts. The first describes the major elements of the Lomé relationship: preferential access to the EC market for most ACP exports; a compensation scheme for ACP primary product producers who have suffered short-term declines in their export earnings; and a program of development assistance, including both traditional long-term project grants and, more recently, assistance in coping with immediate problems of structural adjustment. The second part examines the convention from a broader perspective, contrasting the liberal institutionalist perspective on international political economy, which emphasizes the importance of building viable international institutions, with the more critical dominance! dependence perspective. Finally, the paper considers the future prospects of the Lomé relationship in light of the major changes that have occurred in recent years within the European Community and the global economy as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]