Negotiating A Successor To The Lome Convention

The claims of the developing countries for more equal participation in existing international economic arrangements have been eclipsed temporarily by global economic recession and the pressures on developing countries to adjust their economies to radically changed circumstances. But negotiations between the industrial countries of the North and the developing countries of the South will remain an important feature of international politics in the years ahead. Careful analysis of the negotiating experience of the 1970s—when the pressures of the South for reform of the international economic system reached their peak in a wide variety of international forums—can help improve the negotiating process itself as well as policy formulation. Positive Sum focuses on the relationship of the process of the negotiations of the recent past to their final outcomes. This emphasis differentiates it from the many works on North-South relations that assess results only. The volume presents eight case studies of specific North-South negotiations, prepared as part of a project of the Overseas Development Council in Washington, D.C. The book's emphasis is on pragmatic paths-conflict management, conciliation, cooperation—to mutually satisfactory solutions in asymmetrical situations. In its policy recommendations, the study seeks to move the parties away from sharp divisions between the rich and strong on one side and the poor and relatively weak on the other. Its objective is to identify tactics and procedures that are more likely to deliver "positive sum" (mutually beneficial) rather than "zero-sum" (winner takes all) results. The book offers useful guidelines for negotiators and analysts of future multilateral negotiations.

By early 2000, a new trade agreement must be negotiated between the 72 countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group and the European Union, to replace Lome IV. This volume features: a commentary on the EU's proposals for the new trade arrangements.

The EU policy process is dependent on negotiations as a mode of reaching agreements on, and implementing, common policies. The EU negotiations differ from traditional international negotiations in several respects and this book presents a detailed analysis of the processes while examining their distinguishing features. The authors explore the variety of negotiation processes, the continuity and institutionalization of negotiation processes as well as the involvement of a variety of actors besides governments, often linked in informal networks. Going beyond the common distinctions based on issue-areas or the EU as negotiation arena as opposed to negotiating actor externally, the authors explore the impact of different stages in the policy process and the nature of the external negotiating partner.

Bibliography p. 53-54.