(Does anyone who watches these negotiations closely - and who genuinely
wants to see Africa repel Brussels' exploitative project - report
substantial progress from the African side? The EU strategy is to keep
the EPA negotiations in play, and the next months will feature more
armtwisting and conditional aid, maybe with mure nuanced twists by
Sarkozy. And then the inevitable elite deal. The appeal to China as it
were an anti-imperialist counterweight - all evidence to the contrary,
i.e. forgetting to mention that Beijing is an interimperialist
competitor with even nastier companies and client regimes - is as
misleading as this statement: "Economies continue to prosper - even if
social inequalities remain - and are piloted by a new generation of
young leaders." Given the character of extractive industry wealth, this
bears no relation to genuine wealth generation and savings, which are in
the negative for most countries if any ecologically-broader measure than
GDP is used. Which 'young' leaders is Ramonet promoting? The hope that
the continent's wars will fade - only 3!, forgetting Northern Uganda and
Burundi, not to mention renewed repression in dozens of countries and
civil strife - without any analysis of the forces behind these wars is
disappointing. This is the sort of language that would be welcome and
expected in Davos; yet Ramonet was associated with the WSF, while LMD
has regularly carried solid realpolitik, not fluff like this. I hope the
article below is not the last word there, because this is a wholly
unsatisfactory way to educate French comrades, especially those who seek
- fruitlessly in this case - even a mention of social movements, labour,
women, youth, environmentalists and others engaged in fierce struggle
against the venal elites Ramonet celebrates.)
http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2008/01/RAMONET/15490
Africa Says No
By Ignacio Ramonet
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.
----------
(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.