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The economic partnership agreements between the European Union and the African-Caribbean-Pacific countries - The impact on trade flow between EU-Ghana and EU-Ivory Coast

Sommer, Greta (2011) The economic partnership agreements between the European Union and the African-Caribbean-Pacific countries - The impact on trade flow between EU-Ghana and EU-Ivory Coast.

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Abstract:Since the adoption of the Lomé Convention, the European Union (EU) has been negotiating Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with countries in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions in order to obtain a new basis for future economic relations. However, many of these countries have not signed the agreements yet; critique on possible negative outcomes is the main reason. Yet, the European Commission insists that positive effects prevail. The Western African states Ivory Coast and Ghana have initialed/signed Interim Economic Partnership Agreements (IEPAs) and hence, serve as adequate samples to state whether the Economic Partnership Agreements have a significant impact on trade flow. Hence, this thesis aims to answer the central question: “To what extent does the introduction of Interim Economic Partnership Agreements have an impact on trade flow between the European Union and Ivory Coast and Ghana, respectively, as intended?” In order to arrive at results to answer this question, I firstly state the initial aims of the introduction of Economic Partnership Agreements. Secondly, I collect data and gather nominal import and export values for the European Union, Ivory Coast and Ghana, respectively, for the time period 2000–2011. Subsequently, I compute the average yearly fluctuations in trade volume for the periods 2000–2007 and 2008–2010/2011, since the Interim Economic Partnership Agreements were initialed/signed in 2008. Large differences in average yearly fluctuations would indicate an impact of the Interim Economic Partnership Agreements on trade flow between the two Western African countries and the European Union. It is expected to find that the introduction of the Economic Partnership Agreements has led to average positive fluctuations, and hence, that the adoption of Interim Economic Partnership Agreements (partially) caused an increase in trade flow.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:83 economics
Programme:European Studies BSc (56627)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/63163
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