Trade relations between the EU and Africa: development, challenges and options beyond the Cotonou Agreement, edited by Yenkong Ngangjoh-Hodu and Francis A.S.T. Matambalya, London, Routledge, 2009, 320 pp., £95.00 (hardback), ISBN 9780415549813
Debates on the European Union's (EU) trade relations with African countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP) have been marked by the patent predominance of the voices of Western intellectuals. This may be immaterial. However it is comforting to welcome a compendium of contributions led by African scholars on the nature and future of such ties. The volume, edited by legal and economic scholars Yenkong Ngangjoh-Hodu and Francis Matambalya, is engulfed by a sense of emotive resonance.
The editors make a number of recommendations. First, they observe that while external reforms are needed, internal reforms are more important (p. 266). Second, they suggest that Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) should have some practical funding mechanisms for ACP countries (ibid.). Third, they submit that the EU should exercise restraint in its mercantilist approach. Fourth, they recommend that duty-free and quota-free access could be useful for the poor countries. Finally they conclude that ‘aid for trade’ is needed to address supply-side problems (p. 267). In arriving at these conclusions they draw from the trends articulated in the contributions.
A common trend is the asymmetrical understanding of the concept of development and use of EPAs as poverty eradication tools. The interpretation of what development is, by the EU on the one hand and by African countries on the other, seems to run at cross purposes. The gap in the meaning of development and modalities for its attainment exists not only between the African and EU partners, but also within EU institutions. Stocchetti rightly underscores how the understanding of development by the Department of Trade in the EU Commission can be at variance with that of other departments (p. 52). She suggests that the EU is using EPAs as a tool to pursue pure commercial interests. This negative assessment of the relations is taken up by other contributors such as Ramessur-Seenarain, who argues that EPAs will have a terrible impact on Africa's employment opportunities, intra-regional trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) flows (pp. 64–65). The sophisticated nature of rules of origin used in EPAs, noted by Herran (p. 109), further darkens prospects for African countries.
The shared sense of responsibility between the African and external actors is another theme that runs through the text. The contributions of some of the authors, especially the input by Streatfield and Watson on geographical indications, advocate for poorer countries to place more emphasis on how intellectual property rights can be productively used. Finally all the chapters articulate a sense of measured expectations and an attempt to be balanced. For instance, and in fairness to the EU, Alavi recognises that there were few options that the EU could use to legally phase out the preferential system that had been sanctioned under the Lomé Conventions (p. 195).
But what kind of development does Africa desire and under what context? The reader could be hopeful that this will receive attention as suggested by the editors (p. 4). However the articles fall short of providing a political and economic context at the global level for EU–Africa relations. It is true that the current financial crisis has had an impact on developing countries, including those in Africa. But it is equally true that there is a new dynamic in many African economies. Reports from the Boston Consulting Group (2010) and McKinsey (Leke et al. 2010) are bullish about Africa's economic prospects. One of the reasons for this optimism, as noted by Joseph Stiglitz (Yaiche 2010), is the renewed interest that countries such as Brazil, India, China, Russia and Turkey have in Africa. The book does not reflect this context as a potential reason for the difficult nature of the EPA negotiations. Also, important milestones such as the EU's Lisbon Treaty and the pre-2010 negotiation that led up to the revised Cotonou Agreement are absent.
In addition, one of the empirical chapters (Matambalya's) provides a strong counterclaim for scaremongers who regard EPAs as catalysts for trade doom for ACP countries. This contribution is vital in showing that in cases such as Tanzania's agricultural and livestock sectors, product densities are so shallow as to defeat recourse to defensive measures in response to the effects of EPAs (pp. 224–225). In spite of the usefulness of the contribution it reads like an independently commissioned report with mind-boggling equations. This could have been mitigated with information on the chapter's relevance for other sectors and for other poor countries with conditions similar to Tanzania's. That said, the book stamps an important mark on the understanding of EU–Africa trade relations, the more so as it sheds light on an area that has become a moving target rather than a static edifice.