Potential Economic Effects of the Lome Conventions in Sub-Saharan Africa

The European Union has built up special relationship with the developing countries. To achieve the aims of the common development policy, the EU grants not only financial aid but also trade preferences in order to help the reintegration of these countries into the world economy. The most important commercial tool is the conventions granting trade preferences for the contracting parties - like the four Lome Conventions, which ensured the ACP-countries free access to the European markets in contractual form for a period of 25 years. This paper tries to investigate the possible economic effects of the Lome Conventions on the Sub-Saharan African countries