| |
Africa must drop the guilt card to
strengthen its hand
Bronwen Maddox, Chief Foreign
Commentator , Timesonline
The row over the presence of Robert Mugabe at the weekend’s
EU-Africa summit served only to conceal the other bitter divisions
between the two continents. Most serious is the failure of their
five-year attempt to agree rules for trading with each other.
This summit, the first in seven years, was supposed to put colonial
history firmly in the past. On that, it was a sour disaster. Some
African leaders persisted in blaming former colonial rulers for all
the ills of the present; many demanded special terms of trade; all
had an eye on China as a more attractive partner.
There is a chance to repair the damage, at least in relation to new
trade deals, at the European Union summit on Friday, although that
will be consumed by members’ own rifts over the EU constitution.
The EU-Africa row over trade has been five years in coming and is no
easier to solve. At the moment, Britain, France, Belgium and
Portugal give former African and Caribbean colonies privileged
trading terms, granting them easy access to European markets while
letting them shield their own. Under World Trade Organisation rules,
these deals become illegal on January 1, when a waiver allowing
special treatment expires. .......More
|
