Introduction and Research Question Sample Clauses

Introduction and Research Question. The European Union (EU) has a long established trade relationship with its former colonies, the group of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries: the ACP group1. This relationship is currently subject to a drastic change. In 2000 the former Lomé Conventions were replaced by the Cotonou Partnership Agreement. The aim is to replace former non-reciprocal trade preferences granted by the EU to the ACP countries with Economic Partnership Agreements – a form of free trade arrangements between the EU, one of the largest economic powers in the world and regional groups of developing and least- developed2 ACP countries. The new agreement will be looked at in this thesis from a developmental perspective. The EU-ACP relationship is considered to be a measure of development cooperation. To evaluate the Agreement signed in Cotonou it seems appropriate to connect it to the two main development theories: the Modernisation Theory and the opposing Dependency Theory. Both theories provide explanations for the reasons of underdevelopment. Basically the Modernisation Theory argues that countries are underdeveloped because they rely more on traditional values and behaviours than adopting the concepts of the ‘modern world’. In this thesis, it will be shown in what way Cotonou can be seen as an approach to ‘modernise’ the trade sector/economy of the developing world. Opposing to this idea might be the connection of Cotonou to the basic assumptions of the Dependency Theory which argues that the developing countries are in the position they are due to the dependence of the developed world which tries to keep them at a low level and exploit them. According to this theory, the EU would only offer preferential trade arrangements (PTAs) to the ACP states to reach further trade liberalisation only for the sake of their own benefits. The application of the main theories might help to understand the position of Cotonou on the axis between EU development cooperation and economic self-interest. Which aspect weighs more – which theoretic concepts are rather to be fulfilled needs to be assessed throughout the analysis and the isolation of underlying circumstances and assumptions. The main research question of this paper will therefore be: Does the new Cotonou Partnership Agreement encourage modernisation of the ACP countries or does it entail further dependency from the EU? In order to answer this research question two opposing hypotheses will be confronted in this paper: Hypothesis one ...

Introduction and Research Question