ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Europe's emphasis on African free market reform within the moral economy of Association under the Cotonou Partnership Agreement, specifically in terms of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). It examines the significance of aid concessions as a legitimating pillar of the moral economy following the transition from the Lome Conventions to reciprocal free trade under the Cotonou Agreement. Then, it also explores challenges to the normative reupholstering of the moral economy in the Cotonou era. Most significantly, the European Union (EU) in the moral economy of Association under Cotonou has reinforced the blurring of trade and ethical development objectives. The chapter focuses on the EU's emphasis on free market approaches to development within the contemporary moral economy of EU-Africa relations. The strategic significance of aid concessions to African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries was understood to have gained particular prominence, however, the contemporary moral economy of EU-Africa relations under Cotonou given the EU's requirement to legitimise reciprocal trade under EPAs.
