Think Continental

Plans to reinvigorate African economies and integrate the continent more fully into the global economy all too often drown in an ocean of words. African conferences tend to be strong on pageantry and symbolism and weak on substance. This week's Cairo African Trade Conference may well be an exception.

That said, the answers to a great many of the continent's economic woes lie in non-African hands. Indeed, many in Africa blame the relative lack of economic progress on an inherently unfair international trade system. Africa, they argue, is fully integrated into the global economy and trading system -- it is just that it is integrated in an unjust, demeaning and fundamentally warped fashion. The continent is in a no-win situation.

"Through its leadership of the AU Trade Ministers, and of the Africa Group inside the WTO, Egypt hopes to play an increasingly active and central role in promoting the African position on global trade issues and in facilitating intra- African trade," Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid told Al-Ahram Weekly.

"We need to excite Africa about itself."

Egypt is acutely aware of the unfair trade practices of the West as well as Africa's own serious infrastructural shortcomings which stand in the way of inter- African trade. Traditionally, individual African countries have focussed on products in which they have a comparative cross-border advantage.

"The promotion of regional trade is the key to the continent's economic prosperity," Rachid said.

Egypt already exports building materials, cement, ceramics, petrochemicals, agricultural products, pharmaceuticals, textiles and footwear to other African countries, and a number of high profile Egyptian businessmen keen to capitalise on business opportunities in Africa attended the Cairo gathering.

The five-day third ordinary session of the Africa Union (AU) Conference of Trade Ministers, at which Egypt officially took over the chair of the AU Conference of Trade Ministers, began on 5 June and ends today.

The session discussed a common African position to be adopted during World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations and reviewed the continent's economic and trade relations with key global trading partners. Participating trade ministers also assessed the progress of regional trade facilitation and liberalisation efforts currently underway.

"The prominence of WTO negotiations on the conference agenda underscores the importance to Africa of a fair, non-discriminatory, predictable, multilateral rules-based trading system," Minister Rachid explained. "The meeting will explore the status of the negotiations that followed the July Package (2004) and determine what African nations expect from the final package at the WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong in December 2005," he told the Weekly on the eve of the Cairo conference.

Rachid stressed that WTO issues of particular concern to African ministers include the elimination of trade distorting subsidies and a significant improvement in market access, particularly in the agricultural, manufacturing and service sectors.

"Agriculture is crucial to development, poverty reduction and food security in Africa and will receive special attention at the conference," he said.

Inter-African trade stands at a paltry seven to eight per cent. "It compares poorly with other continents. In Europe, Asia and Latin America at least 50 per cent of trade is within the same continent."

Rachid warned that African countries must not focus on the few products in which individual states enjoy a comparative advantage.

"We must think continental. Unless we are able to significantly boost regional trade our chances of playing a bigger international role will be minimal."

On Wednesday, Deputy United States Trade Representative Peter Allgeier and European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson joined Rachid for discussions on promoting trade with Africa.

Rachid, who worked with UNILIVER before taking up his ministerial post, has travelled extensively in Africa. He used to visit South Africa two or three times a year and has worked extensively in West Africa, in Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast. He is also familiar with Kenya and Tanzania, Sudan, the Maghreb countries of North Africa and Libya.

"Egypt has a special relationship with COMESA and with the North African countries of the Maghreb. But we also trade with West Africa and increasingly with southern Africa," he said.

Rachid had previously stressed the central importance of development at the Doha Round for Africa where he drew attention to the detrimental impact of trade liberalisation on the economies of Africa's most vulnerable countries.

Africa's trade ministers reviewed a status report on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) under negotiation between African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and the European Union as part of the Cotonou Agreement. They also reviewed a report on the implementation of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA III), a US trade agreement according preferential treatment to Africa.

Rachid views Africa's trade and investment relationship with Asia, and especially with China and Japan, in an optimistic light. Both the conclusions of the third Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD III) and the growth in African trade with China and southeast Asia were discussed at the Cairo gathering.