0000000000147214
AUTHOR
Helmut Asche
Europäische Handels- und Agrarpolitik gegenüber Afrika Mit einem kritischen Blick auf den Beitrag der Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Abstract European trade policy with Africa is in deep trouble. We observe a triple policy failure. (1) The EU tries to draw African partner countries into comprehensive deep integration agreements, far more than these countries can arguably support. (2) For trade in goods, safeguard clauses in the EPAs are patchy. They cannot satisfy African needs for smart protection of agricultural and industrial businesses. Facing the refusal of some African governments to sign, the EU has no answer. Ensuing fragmentation of African regional economic communities is a disaster. Rapid repair work of the existing regional EPA drafts looks more promising than a grand solution with the new African Continental…
The State of the Unions
What defines an economic region and distinguishes it from other spatial concepts? This fundamental question is addressed based on the dimensions of space, borders, action and time. An overview of the landscape of African Regional Economic Communities (RECs) follows. RECs are briefly portrayed, and the bewildering multitude of RECs is demystified to create a better understanding of the pattern of economic integration in Africa. The exercise is guided by a matrix of general-purpose versus functional/sectoral as well as effectual versus ineffectual/dormant economic unions. This analysis forms the basis for a critical discussion of the African Union’s practice of only granting official recognit…
Regional Integration in Trade Theory
Given widespread scepticism in trade economics about the value of RECs comprised of developing countries, the formal theory of regional economic integration is critically examined in four stylized configurations. Based on the overarching logic of trade creation and diversion, the usual diagrammatic treatment of tariff effects is critically discussed in terms of its numerous shortcomings. A single-country and REC-wise diagrammatic treatment of tariffs in the presence of increasing returns is proposed to allow quantitative assessment of the arguably most promising case for South-South RECs. Building on the literature, the cases of full and incomplete specialization within a regional group are…
The Reality of African Trade Integration—Challenges of Implementation
In the course of their evolution on the stylized path of economic integration, African RECs face a number of implementation challenges, beginning with a range of typical domestication issues for trade agreements. A fundamental problem is that African regional trade arrangements (RTA) are all based on two GATT/WHO clauses which do not require full internal liberalization. The chapter analyses how RTA implementation on this basis has led to a general logic of exclusions and exemptions in Africa’s trade relations and traces how entrenched empirical practice meant to serve developmental purposes—protection of the weakest economic actors—often caters to vested interests. Inconsistency is aggrava…
Shallow and Deep Integration
The concepts of shallow and deep economic integration are introduced and discussed as to their pertinence. The conflicting results of successive rounds of global trade negotiations for developing and least developed countries are examined in the context of deep integration attempts in North-South agreements. It is established as a guiding principle that North-South agreements should normally not go deeper or run faster than South-South agreements. In light of observed global trends, upcoming inter-regional trade deals will differ from current preferential North-South trade agreements, and Northern partners will be adamant that future agreements should go deep, as the chapter critically disc…
The EU-Africa Trade Agreements
This chapter scrutinizes the successive rounds of EU-Africa agreements and the four-tier preference system of the European Union for developing countries, with special attention to the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA). Full EPAs and interim EPAs are reviewed in terms of the resulting country configurations in Africa and their impact on the officially intended consolidation of African regional communities. The analysis concludes that the artificial EPA configurations do not correspond to any existing REC in Africa. If they last, they will have a very critical effect on Africa’s regional economic integration, all the more as they start to be emulated in other trade agreements between Afr…
The Logical Sequence of Regional Economic Integration
Globally, regional economic communities are classified in what is customarily called the linear model of integration. The question arises as to where African RECs stand on a stylized linear path of economic integration and to what extent this model can provide guidance for further integration steps. The factual nonlinearity of the ‘model’ is discussed and the ensuing challenges for economic integration are identified in terms of monetary unions, non-tariff measures/barriers (with a new typology) and harmonization of standards. In a final step, the ‘model’ itself is amended and critically discussed in the light of the question of whether a scheme largely inspired by the European experience c…
The Coordination Problem in Regional Integration
A catch-22 situation or coordination failure between the slow creation of well-integrated regional markets and low economic diversification (plus sophistication and specialization) is unfolding in Africa. Ubiquitous trade barriers translate into a paradoxical tariff pattern by which African neighbours are treated worse than remote trade partners. In the face of widespread irregularities and high trade costs, ‘trade facilitation’ has become an important technical approach to easing trade with the support of donor agencies. This chapter examines the systemic potential and limits of trade facilitation programmes. As a general alternative to institution-heavy, imperfect integration along the tr…
A Fourfold Justification of Common Industrial Policy
Most industries need wider regions to flourish. Conversely, most regions need some industries to grow; few can live on agriculture or services alone. However, the interplay of industries and regions is not yet sufficiently developed in African economic practice. This chapter develops a fourfold technical argument for common industrial policy (CIP) in African RECs. Part of the argument is that African RECs already engage in such joint policies, but under different names and not in the required sequence. The opportunity for a regional union to act as a lock-in mechanism for such structural policies is also discussed. Up until now, advanced economy RECs have viewed CIP as a third-rank policy a…
Essentials of Common Industrial Policy
A set of sixteen principles of modern industrial policy is derived from the literature for application to entire regions. Such policy strives to create industrial commons and to rectify market failures which cannot reasonably be expected to self-correct over time. This chapter creates a workable typology of genuine regional industries, distinguishing two main types: Type I is the outcome of targeted selection and Type II of broad investment promotion. A ‘dual core’ of both types is appropriate to most African industrial ecosystems. The chapter goes on to clarify the distinction between regional production networks and stand-alone ‘lighthouses’. The incentive system for regional industries i…
On the African Continental Free Trade Area
Africa-wide integration projects have competed with step-wise regional integration since independence. This chapter examines the new project of an African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The project’s potential to become an economic game-changer for Africa is analysed alongside the likely pitfalls of the arrangement. We conclude that while a well-staged AfCFTA can resolve a number of critical issues associated with intra-African integration, it cannot replace existing RECs, especially not with respect to negotiating extra-regional trade agreements. It is argued that to avoid undercutting the entire process, the entrenched logic of exceptions and exclusions from tariff liberalization m…
The Content of Economic Partnership Agreements
This chapter contains the second part of exemplary EPA critique related to the content of the treaties. All relevant economic aspects and clauses of the trade-in-goods agreements are critically examined, including the market access offer, quantitative restrictions, trade remedies, export duties and subsidies, national treatment and procurement, and rules of origin. The agreed and proposed clauses are submitted to scrutiny of whether the remaining policy space still allows sensible infant industry protection in Africa. The analysis concludes that some policy space is left for targeted developmental efforts by African governments but is made very difficult in the practical management of the n…
Industrialization Strategies and Regional Actors
Against the backdrop of the partly normative, partly empirical policy framework, the major regional industrial policy documents of the African Union, EAC, ECOWAS, SACU and SADC are examined as to their applicability. The empirical cases of the West African dairy and textile value chains are used to discuss the difficulties of regional priority-setting. The precise roles of (a) regional financial institutions, (b) regional development aid, including the panoply of ‘private sector development’ (PSD) projects and (c) regional business associations are defined. A concise summary of the essentials of common industrial policy concludes the chapter.
Final Assessment of the EU-Africa Trade Deals—Ways Out?
Based on the emerging country configurations (EPA groups) and the content of the EU-Africa trade arrangements, the chapter reviews the political impasse between the EU and Africa following the highly contested implementation start of the bi-regional trade agreements. Regional economic integration in Africa is considered to be in present danger with regard to the engendered fragmentation of main African RECs, namely the emerging customs unions. Suggestions are reviewed on how these and other North-South agreements can be either replaced by treaties that will be more beneficial for African countries and regions (‘grand alternatives’) or at least substantially improved (‘repair work’). New are…