"Trade follows the flag" was one of the slogans of the Brit-ish empire: the gunboats and the redcoats opened the way for the merchants and the manufacturers (although, on occasion, the sequence was reversed). But long after the flag came down on Europe's empires, the continent's trade policies still offer more than a salute to its colonial legacy. Through a succession of trade deals—signed first in Yaounde, Cameroon, in 1963; then in Lome, Togo, in 1975; and finally in Co-tonou, Benin, in 2000-the European Union (EU) and its predecessor have kept their markets open to former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific islands (AcP). The EU'S patronage is now enjoyed by 77 countries-Francophone, Anglophone and Lusophone-from which the EU bought ?28.3 billion-worth ($35.1 billion) of goods last year.
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