Yaoundé Agreement

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The Yaoundé Convention , including Yaoundé , was in Yaounde (Yaounde), the capital of Cameroon , on 20 July 1963 (with expiration date on May 31, 1969) and on 29 July 1969 with the European Economic Community (EEC) completed. The association agreement aimed at the establishment of a free trade area and the removal of trade barriers . These treaties were the predecessors of the better-known Lomé and Cotonou Conventions .

Yaoundé I: First Agreement (1964–1969)

The first Yaoundé Agreement between the European Economic Community and 18 African states that had recently gained independence was signed in Yaoundé on July 20th and came into force on June 1st, 1964. It was essentially based on bilateral treaties and economic agreements between the member states of the EEC and the African states that were bilateralised by the agreement. The term of the agreement was agreed for 5 years.

The 18 African AASM states ( English Associated African States and Madagascar, AASM ) were Burundi , Dahomey , Democratic Republic of the Congo , Ivory Coast , Gabon , Cameroon , Congo-Brazzaville , Madagascar , Mali , Mauritania , Niger , Upper Volta , Rwanda , Senegal , Somalia , Togo , Chad and the Central African Republic .

In addition to economic cooperation, the agreement supported European development aid through the European Development Fund . Over the life of the first agreement, payments made by the fund were approximately $ 730 million. Of this amount, 620 million were granted as direct aid, 46 as loans and 64 million as loans from the European Investment Bank

Yaoundé II: Second Agreement (1971-1975)

The second Yaoundé agreement extended the bilateral agreements made in the first agreement. After the expiry of the first agreement, a second agreement was concluded on July 29th, which entered into force on January 1st, 1971 and was to be valid until January 31st, 1975. The associated African states continued to be made up of the largely francophone 18 AASM states. Mauritius joined the agreement in 1972, and even before Great Britain joined the EC in 1973, other Anglophone countries also cooperated in separate agreements with the EC. The admission of Nigeria following the Lagos Agreement for Cooperation (July 16, 1966) and the states of the East African Community (EAC) following the Arusha Agreement (July 26, 1968) was actually planned for Yaoundé II, both agreements expired at the same time as Yaoundé I on May 31, 1969, due to the Biafra War in Nigeria and the non-ratification of the Arusha Agreement by the EAC states, this did not come about. The separate agreements were later extended and paved the way for the first Lomé Convention , which included 46 states.

The third European Development Fund, set up for the same period, provided 918 million US dollars for the 18 AASM states, 748 million of which were to be provided as development aid, 90 million as loans from the European Investment Bank and 80 million as loans.

literature

  • William Zartman : The EEC's new deal with Africa . In: Africa Report . Jhg. 15, no. 2 , February 1970, p. 28-31 .