Le Monde Diplomatique
January 2008
So then, to the great displeasure of arrogant Europe, the unimaginable has occurred: in a burst of pride and revolt, Africa, which some believed submissive because it is impoverished, said "no." No to the straitjacket of force that the Economic Partnership Agreements (APE) are. No to the savage liberalization of trade. No to these latest avatars of the "colonial pact."
All this took place in Lisbon in December during the second European Union-Africa summit, the main objective of which was to force the African countries to sign new trade treaties (the famous APE) before December 31, 2007, in application of the Cotonou Agreement (June 2000), which provided for the end of the Lome Convention (1975). According to the Lome Convention's provisions, goods from the former African colonies (and from the Caribbean and the Pacific) come into the Union with virtually no customs duty, except on those products that are sensitive for European producers, such as sugar, meat and bananas.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) required that these preferential relationships be dismantled, and that they be replaced - the only way, according to the WTO, to preserve a difference in treatment in favor of African countries - with trade agreements based on reciprocity (1). The European Union opted for this second alternative: wholesale, fundamentalist free trade camouflaged under the appellation "Economic Partnership Agreements."
In other words, what the Twenty-Seven were demanding from the African (and Caribbean and Pacific (2) countries, was that they agree to allow European Union goods and services exports to enter their markets without any customs duty.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade denounced this pressure and refused to sign. He slammed the door. South Africa's president, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, immediately supported him. Right afterwards, Namibia also made the courageous decision not to sign, when an increase in Europe Union customs duties on its beef would have signaled the end of Namibia's beef exports and the extinction of that connection.
Even the French president, Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, although he made some extremely unfortunate statements in Dakar in July 2007 (3), lent his support to the countries most opposed to these rapacious treaties: "I'm for globalization; I'm for freedom," he declared, "but I am not for the despoliation of countries that, moreover, no longer have anything [to despoil] (4)."
This rebellion against the APE - which, south of the Sahara, arouse an immense wave of popular anxiety as well as intense social and labor movements - won the field. The summit adjourned on a note of failure. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was forced to back down and agree to the African countries' demand to continue the discussion. He committed to resuming negotiations next February.
This crucial victory for Africa is an additional sign of the favorable moment the continent is experiencing. During the last few years, the most deadly conflicts have ended (the only ones remaining are those in Darfur, Somalia and eastern Congo) and democratic advances have been consolidated. Economies continue to prosper - even if social inequalities remain - and are piloted by a new generation of young leaders.
Another asset, finally: the presence of China, which, investing massively, is about to replace the European Union in the first rank of suppliers to the African continent, and which, moreover, could become its biggest client, ahead of the United States, as soon as 2010. The time is long gone when Europe could impose disastrous structural adjustment programs. Now Africa is resisting. And that's all to the good.
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(1) Read Alternatives Economiques, Paris, December 2007.
(2) On December 16, 2007, the Caribbean countries agreed to sign an APE with the European Union.
(3) In his speech at the University of Dakar, on July 26, 2007, Mr. Sarkozy declared: "Africa's drama is that the African has never made a sufficient entry into History (...), has never thrust himself into the future." Read Anne-Cecile Robert, "L'Afrique au karcher," Le Monde diplomatique, September 2007.
(4) Le Monde, 15 December 2007.
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