The failure of sheltering ACP infant industries

By Alex Singleton | 2 December 2005

Back in May, The Economist newspaper discussed the removal of discriminatory trade privileges favouring former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific islands (ACP):

The EU's critics argue that the ACP countries need to retain some shelter behind which they can rear their infant industries, as the East Asian tigers did before them. But the 1975 Lomé convention afforded them precisely that: generous access to EU markets and no obligation to open up at home. Thirty years later, the infant industries have yet to grow up. Indeed, the ACP countries' share of the EU market has dropped, from 8% in 1975 to less than 3% by the time of the Cotonou agreement.