Under the Third Convention between the European Community and 66 States in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, signed 8 December 1984 in LomC, funds of more that $US 8500 have been made available. The contracting parties have given agricultural and rural cooperation highest priorities, with the aim of improving selfsufficiency and food security in ACP countries while at the same time controlling desertification and protecting natural resources. As in previous Conventions, export of a number of agricultural commodities from ACP countries into the European Community is facilitated on a nonreciprocal basis. Almost 30 years ago, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Germany entered into negotiations to establish the European Economic Community which was finally created in 1957 by the conclusion of the Treaty of Rome. Since then political and economic conditions worldwide have changed considerably. Nevertheless, the Third LomC Convention, signed 8 December 1984 between the Member States of the European Community on the one hand, and 66 countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, on the other hand, has its genesis in this Rome Treaty. Under the Rome Treaty, 31 African, Caribbean, and Pacific overseas territories of France, Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands obtained a privileged status with regard to the newly established European Community. For their social and economic development a European Fund for Overseas Development was created for overseas territories of some members of the community.
At the beginning of the 1960s, a large number of these territories had become independent states; nevertheless they expressed interest in continuing their special relationship with the European Community, especially in the fields of trade and development. As a result, a Convention between 18 mainly francophone