Trading in development: norms and institutions in the making/unmaking of European Union–African,Caribbean and Pacific trade and development cooperation

This paper offers a contribution to recent debates on European Union (EU) external trade and development policy, with a specific focus on the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries. The question asked is why the EU encountered such difficulties in the attempt to translate its normative preferences for freer trade and closer economic integration into a series of binding agreements? Drawing on both economic constructivist and historical institutionalist insights, it is argued that the case for reform initially rested on a strong convergence between institutions and ideas, enabling the EU to discursively present desired policy reforms as necessary to satisfy World Trade Organisation trade rules. However, in due course, the institutional dynamics behind the latter began to diverge from the EU's policy preferences and blunt its norm-based argument – thus creating the space for transnational coalitions to, first, question and, ultimately, undermine aspects the EU's trade and development prospectus for the ACP.     

Myths of Commonwealth Betrayal: UK–Africa Trade Before and After Brexit

Abstract

This article critically interrogates claims that a British exit from the European Union (EU) (Brexit) will create opportunities for the UK to escape the EU’s apparent protectionism and cumbersome internal politics in order to pursue a more liberal and globalist trade agenda based on the Commonwealth. Taking a historical view of UK and EU trade relations with the Commonwealth in Africa, the author highlights the way in which the incorporation of the majority of Commonwealth states into the EU’s preferential trading relationships has reconfigured ties between the UK and its former colonies over time. Further, the author suggests that the EU’s recent attempts to realise a vision for an ambitious set of free trade agreements in Africa—the Economic Partnership Agreements—was disrupted not by EU protectionism or internal politics but rather by African resistance to the EU’s liberal agenda for reciprocal tariff liberalisation and regulatory harmonisation. The UK therefore faces a complex challenge if it is to disentangle its trade relations with Africa from those of the EU and to forge its own set of ambitious free trade agreements with African Commonwealth partners.     

Impediments besetting the negotiations for a comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and East and Southern Africa (2007–2014)

Several African, Caribbean and Pacific countries are currently negotiating World Trade Organization (WTO)-compatible reciprocal economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with the European Union (EU), agreements intended to supersede the one-sided trade preferences of the Lomé Convention. This study focuses on impediments which have bedevilled the EU–East and Southern Africa (ESA) negotiations for a transition from an interim EPA to a comprehensive EPA. These talks, which ran from 2007 to 2014, followed the expiry of a WTO waiver and the ESA's successful resistance to elements of the EU's agenda considered offensive, despite envisaged benefits provided for by the Cotonou Partnership Agreement of 2000 calling for EPAs. The study is based on qualitative primary research in which data from interviews was augmented by a synthesis of secondary sources and analysed through a thematic coding system. Findings reveal asymmetrical power relations, a marked heterogeneity in the ESA and outstanding issues in the interim EPA and WTO regulations as major impediments to the transition to a comprehensive EPA.     

Economic partnership agreements: African–EU negotiations continue

When they were first proposed by the European Commission to the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries — all signatories to the Lome and Cotonou agreements which provided them with preferential access to the European market — economic partnership agreements were presented as supporting regional integration and development. However, most African states regarded economic partnership agreements with suspicion, fearing that the agreements would limit their market access and their policy space. Progress on negotiations has been slow, and more than two years after they were supposed to have been concluded there are still a number of outstanding issues that the individual African regions and the European Commission have to resolve. This paper explores some of the difficulties and the progress made thus far, and proposes some measure that would address the concerns around development and regional integration in the context of the challenges posed by the global financial crisis.     

A method for the rapid detection of the zopiclone degradation product 2-amino-5-chloropyridine

Zopiclone (Zimovane) is a cyclopyrrolone compound which exhibits hypnotic and sedative effects while also exhibiting anticonvulsant and muscle relaxant activities. The detection and quantification of zopiclone is difficult. It has a high molecular weight compared to most other commonly used drugs, therapeutic levels are not high, and it is unstable in nucleophilic solvents. A degradation product of zopiclone, 2-amino-5-chloropyridine (ACP) together with a method for its detection using high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection has been described previously. An account is presented of a simple method for the detection of ACP using gas chromatography with mass selective detection (GC/MS) which will facilitate detection of zopiclone use as part of a routine screen.     

应用酶组织化学方法鉴定死亡时间的初步探讨

利用7例颅脑外伤死亡的健康青年尸体,在死后48h,环境温度18～24℃,空气相对湿度83～92％和实验湿度54～64％的条件下,检测肝脏、肾脏酶活性的变化。实验结果表明,肝脏乳酸脱氢酶(LDH)和L-苹果酸脱氢酶(MDH),随着死亡时间的延长,活性逐渐减低,48h近于阴性;而肾脏上述二种酶活性则在死亡后6h和24h出现高峰,36h开始下降;肝脏的酸性磷酸酶(ACP)亦于死后6h和24h出现高峰,36h开始下降。而肾脏此种酶在死后18～24h,有增高趋势。笔者认为上述酶活性的规律性变化有助于死亡时间的推断。应用二种以上酶活性的变化特点,能够较准确地判断死亡时间。     

Regionalism and African agency: negotiating an Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and SADC-Minus

This article investigates the regional dynamics of African agency in the case of negotiations on an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and a group of Southern African countries, known as SADC-Minus. I argue that these negotiations were shaped by a pattern of differentiated responses to the choice set on offer under the EPAs by SADC-Minus policy makers and by a series of strategic interactions and power plays between them. I offer two contributions to an emerging literature on the role of African agency in international politics. First, I argue for a clear separation between ontological claims about the structure–agency relationship and empirical questions about the preferences, strategies and influence of African actors. Second, I suggest that, in order to understand the regional dynamics of African agency, it is important to pay close attention to the diversity and contingency of African preferences and to the role of both power politics and rhetorical contestation in regional political processes.     

家兔实验性切创的酶组织化学观察

本文报告30只家兔实验性切创在伤后1至12小时创壁的酶组织化学反应。LDH,SDH,NADH,α-GPDH 四种酶反应阳性。创壁酶活性增高的原因部分是局部原来的纤维细胞物质代谢升高,部分是由于急性炎细胞在伤区积聚。作者认为伤后1小时创壁酶反应阳性有助于确定生前伤,并推荐用 PTAH 染色确诊早期创面的微量纤维素性渗出。     

The Commonwealth Caribbean and Europe: The End of the Affair?

Abstract

The institutional relationship between the Commonwealth Caribbean and the European Union (EU) dates back to the mid-1970s, when the Lomé Convention was signed. The agreement was seen as a high water mark in First–Third World relations. However, since then the bond has come under concerted pressure. The consequence is that today the particularism that underpinned relations for so long has almost vanished and the EU is beginning to treat the Caribbean like any other relatively marginal region of the world. The article evaluates the reasons for this change, in particular: the scrapping of the trade protocols; the erosion of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) preference due to free trade agreements signed by the EU; the refocusing of EU development policy towards the least developed countries; and the split in the ACP group with the creation of an ill-designed regional Economic Partnership Agreement. The article places these changes into starker relief by assessing briefly the deepening links between the United Kingdom Overseas Territories and the EU. However, as the article highlights, this link will neither reboot nor sustain the more important Commonwealth Caribbean–EU relationship.