African leaders on Wednesday signed a potentially historic, 26-nation
free-trade pact to create a common market spanning half the continent,
from Cairo to Cape Town.
The deal on the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) is the
culmination of five years of negotiations to set up a framework for
preferential tariffs easing the movement of goods in an area that
is home to 625-million people.
Analysts say the pact could have an enormous impact
on African economies, which despite growth still only account for about
2% of global trade.
The deal will integrate three existing trade blocs – the
East African Community, the Southern African Development Community and
the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) – whose
countries have a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of more than
$1-trillion (€885-billion).
The TFTA pact is to be unveiled officially on the weekend of June 14 and 15 at the summit of the African Union in Johannesburg.
The TFTA pact was launched at a summit in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Members
of the three blocs range from relatively developed economies such as
South Africa and Egypt to countries such as Angola, Ethiopia and
Mozambique, which are seen as having huge growth potential.
But hurdles remain, with the timeline for bringing down
trade barriers yet to be worked out and the deal needing ratification in
national parliaments within two years.
“What we are doing today represents a very important step
in the history of regional integration of Africa,” Egyptian president
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said as he opened the summit.
World
Bank president Jim Yong Kim told the summit that the TFTA would allow
Africa “to make tremendous progress and move the entire continent
forward”.
“Africa has made it clear that it is open for business,” he said.
“The geographical area covers Cape to Cairo ... the
agreement paves the way for a continental free trade area that will
combine the three biggest regional communities,” said Ethiopian Prime
Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe said the deal would
create a “borderless economy” that would rank 13th in the world in terms
of GDP.
Negotiators
drafted the deal this week at Sharm el-Sheikh and said they
had addressed concerns such as management of trade disputes and
protection for small manufacturers once the TFTA comes into force.
Officials said the agreement envisions the eventual merger of the three blocs.
“The ultimate goal is to ensure easy movement of goods in
these countries without duties,” said Peter Kiguta, director general of
the East African Community.
World business leaders have welcomed the TFTA, with experts
saying that only 12% of Africa’s trade is between countries on the
continent.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said
in 2013 that if Africa is to boost its intra-continental trade, it must
focus on creating “more space for the private sector to play an active
role”.
Analysts say that although the continent’s growth over the
past 15 years outstripped global GDP expansion by nearly
three percentage points, falling commodity prices, power shortages,
political instability and corruption are holding back its economies.
“What we have realised is that having one trade regime is
better than the costly multiple trade regimes,” said Comesa secretary
general Sindiso Ngwenya, who led negotiations among the three blocs.
from here
No mention of the workforce or consultation with any civil groups.
We wish you luck, workers of Africa.
Food
sovereignty activists are shining a light on a closed-door meeting
between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID), which are meeting
in London on Monday with representatives of the biotechnology industry
to discuss how to privatize the seed and agricultural markets of Africa.
Early Monday, protesters picketed outside the Gates Foundation's
London offices holding signs that called on the foundation to "free the
seeds." Some demonstrators handed out packets of open-pollinated seeds,
which served as symbol of the "alternative to the corporate model
promoted by USAID and BMGF." Others smashed a piñata, which they said
represented the "commercial control of seed systems;" thousands of the
seeds which filled the pinata spilled across the office steps. A similar
protest is expected later Monday in Seattle, Washington, where BMGF is
headquartered.
The meeting was convened to discuss a report put forth by
Monitor-Deloitte, which was commissioned by BMGF and USAID to develop
models for the commercialization of seed production in Africa,
especially "early generation seed," and to identify ways in which the
African governmental sectors could facilitate private involvement in
African seed systems. The study was conducted in Ethiopia, Ghana,
Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia on maize, rice, sorghum, cowpea, common
beans, cassava and sweet potato.
However, food sovereignty activists are sounding the alarm over the
secret meeting. Heidi Chow, food sovereignty campaigner with Global
Justice Now, which organized Monday's protest, warned that the agenda
being promoted by these stakeholders will only increase corporate
control over seeds.
"This is not 'aid' - it's another form of colonialism," said Chow.
"We need to ensure that the control of seeds and other agricultural
resources stay firmly in the hands of small farmers who feed the
majority of the population in Africa, rather than allowing big
agribusiness to dominate even more aspects of the food system."
In a blog post, Chow further explained:
For generations, small farmers have been able to save and
swap seeds. This vital practice enables farmers to keep a wide range of
seeds which helps maintain biodiversity and helps them to adapt to
climate change and protect from plant disease. However, this system of
seed saving is under threat by corporations who want to take more
control over seeds. Big seed companies are keen to grow their market
share of commercial seeds in Africa and alongside philanthropic
organizations like the Gates Foundation and aid donors, they are
discussing new ways to increase their market penetration of commercial
seeds and displacing farmers own seed systems.
Corporate-produced
hybrid seeds often produce higher yields when first planted, but the
second generation seeds will produce low yields and unpredictable crop
traits, making them unsuitable for saving and storing. This means that
instead of saving seeds from their own crops, farmers who use hybrid
seeds become completely dependent on the seed companies that sell them.
Further, many of the seeds produced by these biotechnology giants are
sold alongside chemical fertilizer and pesticides, manufactured by the
very same companies, the use of which often leads to widespread
environmental destruction and other health problems.
As others noted, while the meeting attendees included representatives
from the World Bank and Syngenta, the world’s third biggest seed and
biotechnology company, no farmers or farming organizations were
represented at the talks.
"Seeds are vital for our food system and our small farmers have
always been able to save and swap seeds freely," Ali-Masmadi
Jehu-Appiah, chair of Food Sovereignty Ghana, said in a press statement.
"Now our seed systems are increasingly under threat by corporations who
are looking to take more control over seeds in their pursuit of profit.
This meeting will push this corporate agenda to hand more control away
from our small farmers and into the hands of big seed companies."
Reporting on the Monitor-Deloitte study, Ian Fitzpatrick, a food
sovereignty researcher for Global Justice Now, said that documents
circulated ahead of the meeting revealed a neo-liberal agenda "laid
bare."
Fitzpatrick writes:
The report recommends that in countries where demand for
patented seeds is weaker (i.e. where farmers are using their own seed
saving networks), public-private partnerships should be developed so
that private companies are protected from ‘investment risk’. It also
recommends that that NGOs and aid donors should encourage governments to
introduce intellectual property rights for seed breeders and help to
persuade farmers to buy commercial, patented seeds rather than relying
on their own traditional varieties.
Finally, in line
with the broader neoliberal agenda of agribusiness companies across the
world, the report suggests that governments should remove regulations
(like export restrictions) so that the seed sector is opened up to the
global market.
"This neoliberal agenda of deregulation and privatization, currently
promoted in almost every sphere of human activity—from food production
to health and education—poses a serious threat to food sovereignty and
the ability of food producers and consumers to define their own food
systems and policies," Fitzpatrick adds.
AGRA Watch, a program of the grassroots group Community Alliance for Social Justice, notes that the BMGF-USAID commercial seed agenda further "extends U.S. foreign policy into Africa on behalf of corporate interests."
Phil Bereano, food sovereignty campaigner with AGRA Watch and an
Emeritus Professor at the University of Washington added: "This is an
extension of what the Gates Foundation has been doing for several
years—working with the US government and agribusiness giants like
Monsanto to corporatize Africa’s genetic riches for the benefit of
outsiders. Don’t Bill and Melinda realize that such colonialism is no
longer in fashion? It’s time to support African farmers’
self-determination."
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