{"id":27921,"date":"2023-04-02T09:32:17","date_gmt":"2023-04-02T09:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/how-to-make-a-continental-trade-deal"},"modified":"2023-04-02T10:11:45","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T10:11:45","slug":"how-to-make-a-continental-trade-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/how-to-make-a-continental-trade-deal","title":{"rendered":"How to make a continental trade deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span><\/a>You won’t have missed the nationalist mood engulfing big economies around the world: the US, Britain, Brazil, France and Germany are all stained by proto-fascists in and around power.<\/p>\n

Politicians in these countries talk of taking back control of borders; they are keen to identify those who should and should not receive state support. But the politicians of Africa are headed in a different direction.<\/p>\n

Far from erecting walls, they want to build \u201cthe world\u2019s largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organisation\u201d, according to Sierra Leone\u2019s trade minister Peter Bayuku Konte.<\/p>\n

The African Continental Free Trade Area, sporting the catchy acronym AfCFTA is an African market that is 1.2 billion people strong and has a gross domestic product of $2.5trn.<\/p>\n

Sierra Leone signed up to become a member on 7 November. It is a bold step by the continent\u2019s leaders. A \u201cnew chapter in African unity\u201d, according to Rwanda\u2019s President Paul Kagame, the energetic chair of the African Union (AU).<\/p>\n

He has been remarkably successful in whipping into line so many peers. Experts agree. \u201cThis level of diplomatic and political support for regional integration and trade has not been seen in Africa for a long time,\u201d says Trudi Hartzenberg, executive director of the Trade Law Centre, which is based in South Africa.<\/p>\n

The economics certainly appear to stack up. Tiny fragmented African markets cannot hope to compete for global capital. And Africa\u2019s most successful regional economic bloc, the East African Community, has been attracting great interest from foreign investors precisely because it is easy to trade across borders in the area.<\/p>\n

But the process is stalling. Though 44 leaders signed AfCFTA\u2019s original treaty, ratification has been slow. Sierra Leone was just the 12th to date. This has partly been because the big economies have been tepid, at best, in their support.<\/p>\n

President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, commenting on Twitter, said: \u201cWe will not agree to anything that will undermine local manufacturers and entrepreneurs, or that may lead to Nigeria becoming a dumping ground for finished goods.<\/p>\n

\u201d South Africa\u2019s President Cyril Ramaphosa said he definitely was up for it \u2013 but just had to check with his parliament first. There are also roadblocks below.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere might well be agreement at the top level, but as soon as you get a few rungs down, there are people who say, \u2018Yes, well those Tanzanians, don\u2019t you remember what they did to us?\u2019, or \u2018Those Kenyans, can they be trusted?\u2019,\u201d says a Kenyan diplomat based in a Nordic country who requests anonymity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s a problem because that is the level that implementation actually happens.<\/p>\n

\u201d He is not pessimistic, however. He points to the small things like the East African passport, which is a sign that integration is finally starting to happen. There has also been resistance from big manufacturers who benefit from monopoly conditions at home to build their fabulous wealth.<\/p>\n

Despite public protestations to the contrary, Nigeria\u2019s most successful building materials manufacturers have domestic margins far greater than even the African average. Why surrender that to lower-cost South African counterparts?<\/p>\n

And in these pages, Zimbabwean tycoon Shingai Mutasa says he believes certain sectors such as steel and chemicals require states to offer some protection to emergent industrialists while they establish themselves (see page 72).<\/p>\n

The Trade Law Centre\u2019s Hartzenberg agrees that lobbying and educating Africa\u2019s private sector should be far higher up the priority list: \u201cIn many countries, it is still not common practice that the private sector is actively engaged by government on the negotiations or kept up to date on the progress or challenges in the negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201d Bringing big business into the big tent might be a start. But beyond the private sector, there are still those in government who are not entirely sold on the concept.<\/p>\n

They point to those successful countries that have used industrial policy to develop. Japan, South Korea and China were all accused of being protectionist during their high-growth period.<\/p>\n

Japan did everything in its power to prevent American cars being sold to Tokyo residents while Toyota and Nissan were in their infancy. When they became world-beaters, the Japanese suddenly started to discover an interest in free markets.<\/p>\n

Seeing China\u2019s Premier Xi Jinping suddenly defending globalisation at his first Davos speech in 2017, after decades of deliberate under-valuation of the currency, had irony klaxons blaring once again.<\/p>\n

When he compared protectionism to \u201clocking oneself in a dark room\u201d, it was probably not a reference to the Uighurs. Nevertheless, those nostalgic for industrial policy\u2019s past should probably check their statist ambitions.<\/p>\n

With value chains in industry crossing borders, it is harder now to target an individual sector without the inevitable piling up of white elephants. It\u2019s not impossible, as Morocco\u2019s flourishing auto sector can testify.<\/p>\n

But protection remains no substitute for skills development and decent infrastructure. Perhaps the best approach is incremental and not \u2018big bang\u2019. To get over the tepid private sector response and bind in those sluggard administrations, one approach could be the historical precursor to the European Union (EU): the European Coal and Steel Community.<\/p>\n

Once the trust was built with a few basic goods, ever-greater levels of sophistication and requirements were added. The EU is now worth $18.8trn. Africa has some power pools, but they face similar integration challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call them the big brother utility club,\u201d says Linda Mabhena-Olagunju, who founded independent power producer DLO Energy Resources Group in South Africa. She says there is strong demand for power in surrounding countries.<\/p>\n

But it is demand that she and her company are unable to meet because the international interconnections are owned by poorly-managed state power utility Eskom, which currently makes a great deal of money from exporting power abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are serious about moving the economies of our continent forward, collaboration is the only way to do it,\u201d says Mabhena-Olagunju.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is only the beginning. These are innovations,\u201d says Abdoulie Janneh, a former diplomat now executive director of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, who remains positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are areas that we are only just venturing into. Do not think they will just happen overnight. \u201d They need to happen soon, ideally by 31 January 2019, when the next chair of the AU accedes to the position. Up next is Egypt\u2019s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi \u2013 who has not been full-throated in his support for AfCFTA.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mauritius<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. You won’t have missed the nationalist mood engulfing big economies around the world: the US, Britain, Brazil, France and Germany are all stained by proto-fascists in and around power. Politicians in these countries talk of taking back control of borders; they are keen to identify those who should and should not receive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":27920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[1640,233,245,241],"class_list":["post-27921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-afcfta","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mauritius","tag-mauritius"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to make a continental trade deal - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You won't have missed the nationalist mood engulfing big economies around the world: the US, ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/how-to-make-a-continental-trade-deal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to make a continental trade deal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You won't have missed the nationalist mood engulfing big economies around the world: the US, ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/how-to-make-a-continental-trade-deal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-02T09:32:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-02T10:11:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1680413985.27.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"732\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"419\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/how-to-make-a-continental-trade-deal#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/how-to-make-a-continental-trade-deal\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"How to make a continental trade deal\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-02T09:32:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-02T10:11:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/how-to-make-a-continental-trade-deal\"},\"wordCount\":1086,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/how-to-make-a-continental-trade-deal#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1680413985.27.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"AfCFTA\",\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"Mauritius\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/how-to-make-a-continental-trade-deal#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/how-to-make-a-continental-trade-deal\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/how-to-make-a-continental-trade-deal\",\"name\":\"How to make a continental trade deal - 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