International Cocoa Trading Arrangements Between Industrialised and Developing Countries 1951–1999: A Structural Gravity Analysis

Using a state‐of‐the‐art structural gravity model, we investigate the impact of various (post‐)colonial cocoa trading arrangements on the cocoa trade between developing cocoa producer countries and rich industrial cocoa consumer nations in the time period 1951–1999. We find that in particular the trading arrangements of the European (Economic) Community (EEC/EC), such as the Association, Yaoundé and Lomé Agreements, as well as the UNCTAD International Cocoa Agreement, had a measurable positive impact on cocoa trade flows, in contrast to the British Commonwealth partnership or the GATT Generalised System of Preferences. In particular, the Yaoundé Agreement not only increased the trade between other EEC/EC members and the signatory cocoa producers, but also strengthened the trading relationship between the former coloniser countries and their cocoa producing former colonies, in fact more than offsetting the negative effect of independence.