ABSTRACT
The Commission of the European Communities has its own organizational interests in ensuring a successful outcome to the negotiations. A final distinguishing feature of the Lome negotiations is that they have been subject to an internally imposed deadline. Long divided by cultural heritage, a factor that exacerbated mutual suspicions, anglophone and francophone African states were able for the first time since their independence to reach agreement on a joint approach to relations with the European Economic Community (EEC). The reciprocity issue was, at the time, the one to which greatest symbolic importance was attached. The more developed Commonwealth countries of Asia were deemed to be “non-associable.” A number of factors favored a successful outcome to the negotiations. The problem was resolved by extraordinary developments in the world sugar market. Negotiation on the basis of broad principles appeared to offer two further advantages to the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Group.
