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Regional cooperation between geographically contiguous groups of countries has become an important aspect of international trade and development policy, with regional trade agreements being seen as stepping stones along the road to multilateral free trade. This book examines whether the Pacific island countries can cooperate together as a region, along cultural, political-institutional and economic lines. This is important because the ongoing trade and aid partnership between the European Union and the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states is meant to be based upon reciprocal free trade agreements, called Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA). EPAs were introduced by the Cotonou Agreement, which was concluded between the EU and the ACP in 2000. A big question is whether the Pacific island countries have a strong enough regional identity, political will and capacity to cooperate and liberalise trade at the regional level. Consequently, this book will be relevant to policy-makers and students of Pacific island politics and European Union development policy, as the Cotonou Agreement poses major challenges to the development partnership between the Pacific ACP states and the EU.
