Samenvatting

The European Union African Caribbean Pacific (EU-ACP) development cooperation has seen changes during the last fifty years. From the Treaty of Rome to the Cotonou Agreement, many policies have been implemented with the aim of promoting development in third world countries, and promoting trade between those developing countries and the EU nations. But with declining economies and increasing aid dependence, it is evident that these numerous agreements have failed to achieve their goal of further developing the ACP countries. The trade liberalization policies under the Cotonou Agreement have led to increased imports from the EU into the local markets of ACP nations. This been shown to have drastic effects on the economies of these countries as many local industries, which are unable to compete with the cheap imports, are put out of business. The Ghanaian poultry sector is one of the industries which has suffered terribly due to the surge in imports. The domestic poultry industry, which at one point in 1992 met 95% of Ghana's poultry needs, now merely provides 11% of the country's requirements (Kudzodzi, 2006).

The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) introduced in the Cotonou agreement in 2008 has not been signed by the Ghanaian government and the primary purpose of this project is to illustrate how the trade liberalization policies of the Cotonou Agreements have done more harm than good to developing economies such as Ghana and that signing the EPA would be ineffective for the poultry sector. Furthermore highlighted is the poultry sector as an example of the negative effects of the trade policies, which were implemented upon Ghana by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU). The EPAs were stated to be a tool of development with the objective of removing poverty, but instead the trade policies of the EPA have resulted in thousands of poultry farmers losing their jobs. This research suggests that the policies of the EPAs only favor the developing nations and the Ghanaian government needs to take many corrective measures to rectify the situation.