Nostalgia and some lessons from a Barbados seminar
As Africa seeks to implement its recently established continental freetrade area (AfCFTA), it is worth assessing some of the lessons about bloc negotiations with external powers learnt from a policy seminar held in Barbados.
Keynote speaker Shridath Ramphal, Guyanese former Commonwealth secretarygeneral noted how Caribbean states built consensus before joining the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) group. A Caribbean delegation visited African countries and regional organisations such as the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and the East African Community from 1972 to 1974 to forge a common negotiating position.
The main lesson for Ramphal was the unified bargaining approach of the ACP. Shortly after the convention, the Guyanese foreign minister hosted the creation of the ACP Group through the Georgetown Agreement.
In a presentation tinged with nostalgia and melancholy, Ramphal noted that the Lomé trade negotiations had been characterised by creativity and solidarity, praising the intellectual leadership demonstrated by the global South, which he saw as sorely lacking in interactions nowadays between the ACP and the EU.
The Guyanese diplomat was particularly scathing of the economic partnership agreements signed between both sides from 2008, noting that their reciprocity clauses contradicted the spirit and letter of the Lomé Convention.
In his opening address in Barbados, former Nigerian foreign minister and current chair of the African peer review mechanism eminent panel, Ibrahim Gambari cautioned that the global multilateral trading system is at risk. He called for the reform of the ACP to reduce dependence on the EU, urging the group to use more of its own resources to support the organisation. He further pushed for Africa’s subregional bodies to take a bigger lead on trade issues with Brussels.
The AfCFTA was criticised during the seminar for having been negotiated without closely involving Africa’s regional economic communities, which have long been identified as the pillars for successful regional integration. Intra-African trade remains an anaemic 14%.
Ecowas has championed a single customs zone, a common currency, an agricultural agency and trade corridors. A lack of convergence between its Nigerian-dominated anglophone and French-dominated francophone members continues to obstruct progress.
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa is prioritising issues such as road transport, cross-border trade, industrial development and agro-processing. But the body struggles with high dependence on agricultural products and exorbitant trading costs.
In the Caribbean, Caricom is prioritising a single market, macroeconomic stabilisation and foreign policy coordination, while seeking to improve its natural disaster management in a cyclone-hit region. The small islands of the Pacific Islands Forum also experienced devastating cyclones in 2015 and 2016, and there is an urgent need to build their resilience.
Australia, Japan, India and the US are furthermore pushing an Indo-Pacific strategy that is seen by many in the region as an anti-China coalition. Nine Pacific countries have nevertheless signed on to Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.
An increased role for the private sector across the ACP region was proposed. Civil society across the three regions were also urged to adopt a more activist role in the group’s activities as it negotiates a new post-Cotonou 2020 accord with the EU involving trade, development co-operation and political dialogue.