IPS Inter Press Service Africa & Europe: No More Trade-Offs
Trade, not aid for Africa: rarely has a slogan promised more, and delivered less. According to World Bank statistics, the continent's share of global trade is a miniscule 1.4 percent -- down from 3.5 percent in 1970. This situation is scarcely improved by the fact that a successful conclusion to the latest round of international trade negotiations remains maddeningly elusive. All doom and gloom, then? Not necessarily. IPS analyses the problems that prevent Africa from taking its proper place in international trade, especially in terms of its relations with Europe. But our coverage also looks at how things can be done differently -- fair trade practices, for instance -- as well as organisations and motivated individuals who simply refuse to accept the status quo.
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- TRADE-AFRICA: Agriculture Talks Stuck on Import Surge Safeguard
GENEVA, Mar 7 (IPS) - The Group of 33 developing countries has denounced the draft text on the special safeguard mechanism in the current Doha Development Round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks as ‘‘extremely inadequate… stringent, restrictive, burdensome (and) ineffective’’. - TRADE-AFRICA: Why Food Import Surges Are an Issue at The WTO
GENEVA, Mar 7 (IPS) - Food import surges have had devastating consequences for the rural poor and local economies in Africa. Such surges have taken place with alarming frequency in the past decade or two. - TRADE-AFRICA: Make or Break for WTO Doha Round
GENEVA, Feb 29 (IPS) - The World Trade Organisation’s beleaguered Doha Round could either be wrapped up in the next two to three months or be stalled for an indefinite period of time. - TRADE: Proposed Tariff Cuts Will ‘Destroy’ Industrial Development
GENEVA, Feb 29 (IPS) - The Doha Round negotiations on industrial products have once again come under fire at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), with developing countries such as South Africa saying that the proposed tariffs cuts will spell the end of their industrial development. - ECONOMY-KENYA: Amid Political Crisis, Food Shortages Loom
NAIROBI, Feb 27 (IPS) - Elizabeth Mutai, who farms passion fruit in the Keiyo district in Kenya's Rift Valley, is worried. Sales of the crop has dropped significantly since the eruption of violence after the election held in December 2007. - TRADE-MALAWI: Tea Growers Devising Plans to Overcome Low Prices
LILONGWE, Feb 27 (IPS) - Low prices continue to haunt Malawian tea on the auction floors, a bitter irony for some producers as the country is regarded as the pioneer of tea-growing in Africa. - TRADE: EU Aims to Rope in African States Resisting EPAs
GENEVA, Feb 26 (IPS) - The European Union is determined to get those African countries on board which have so far kicked against the economic partnership agreements (EPAs). At the end of 2007, only 35 out of 78 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries had initialled EPAs. - TRADE-AFRICA: EU Still Pushing Offensive Interests in EPA Talks
GENEVA, Feb 26 (IPS) - The European Union (EU) has an ambitious agenda for the economic partnership agreement (EPA) negotiations. It is pushing for the conclusion of full agreements in the next one to three years, covering everything from services to ‘‘trade-related’’ issues such as investment, competition and government procurement. - TRADE: EPAs Born of EU’s Concern with China in Africa
CAPE TOWN, Feb 26 (IPS) - The European Union (EU) is concerned about competing with China for access to resources and markets in Africa, which partly explains its drive to hook African states into the trade deals called economic partnership agreements (EPAs). - TRADE-AFRICA: ''EPAs Are Not About Partnership''
CAPE TOWN, Feb 25 (IPS) - The economic partnership agreements (EPAs) currently being negotiated between Europe and its former colonies in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions are not about equal partnerships but about enabling ‘‘big giant Europe to gain better access to African markets’’. - TRADE-AFRICA: International Call for Action Against EPAs
CAPE TOWN, Feb 25 (IPS) - African and international civil society organisations have adopted a call for action, urging the rest of the world to redouble its efforts to stop the European Union's drive to institute economic partnership agreements (EPAs). - TRADE-UGANDA: Privatisation of Seeds Moving Apace
GENEVA, Feb 21 (IPS) - The Ugandan parliament will soon have a hearing on the draft Plant Variety Protection Bill, approved by the cabinet early last year. If passed unmodified, the bill is likely to entrench the rights of breeders and companies while curtailing the rights of small farmers to exchange, save and breed new varieties using hybrid seeds. - TRADE-UGANDA: Exposing ''The African Green Revolution''
GENEVA, Feb 21 (IPS) - Uganda’s major trade partners are not only looking for food markets but also for seed markets. This has happened in a push that has been packaged as ‘‘the new green revolution’’ by corporations involved in biotechnology and chemicals. They have been supported by philanthropic organizations, notably the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. - TRADE: Individual EPAs ''Do Not'' Undermine Regional Integration
BRUSSELS, Feb 15 (IPS) - Central African countries have committed themselves to finalising an economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the European Union by June this year. - TRADE: EPA Damages Regional Cooperation in Southern Africa
WINDHOEK, February 15 (IPS) - The Southern African Development Community (SADC) should engage in serious discussions to prevent the economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the European Union from destroying its regional integration efforts.
