Economic Partnership Agreement between West Africa and the European Union in the Context of the World Trade Organization(WTO) and the Regional Integration Process

Economic Partnership Agreement between West Africa and the European Union in the Context of the World Trade Organization(WTO) and the Regional Integration Process

A new cooperation Agreement has been signed between the European Union and the 77 ACP Countries in Cotonou (Benin) on June 23rd 2000. A point of this agreement is regarding a new trade cooperation between these different countries in districts (or regions) gathered and the European Union, based on a preferential reciprocal liberalisation. This agreement is intervening in the context of globalisation, the multilateral trade liberalization, the regionalization, the renewal of regional integration processes and, the multiplication of the internal conflicts in Africa. This paper ask if is the economic Partnership Agreement able to take into account the needs for development of the ACP countries in the strict frame of the region Western Africa The thesis developed herein want to demonstrate that the principles of the APE do not allow to take really the needs of development for the countries of the region Western Africa: in consideration to the context, the APE characteristics, the structural and institutional rigidities` of the economies of these area.