EU-African Economic Relations: Continuing Dominance Traded for Aid?

GIGA Working Paper No. 82

29 Pages Posted: 6 Aug 2012 Last revised: 16 Aug 2012

See all articles by Dirk Kohnert

Dirk Kohnert

GIGA - Hamburg, Institute of African Affairs

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: July 1, 2008

Abstract

Promising growth rates, increased trade, and competition among major global players for African resources have boosted the development and bargaining power of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in relation to the EU. However, Africa's least developed countries remain vulnerable to external shocks. Academic analysis is still too heavily influenced by scholastic controversies. Neither the controversy over “big-push” concepts nor the blaming of African culture as an impediment to growth or good government do justice to the real issues at stake. Even beyond the aftermath of (neo)colonialism, and notwithstanding continuing deficits in good government in many African countries, the EU bears responsibility for the fragile state of many African economies. The self-interested trade policies of the EU and other world powers contribute to poverty and unsatisfactory development in SSA. This threatens to perpetuate asymmetrical power relations in the new Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), to the detriment of regional integration and pro-poor growth. However, mounting competition between China and other global players for Africa's resources is resulting in windfall profits for Africa. The latter is leading to a revival of seesaw politics, already known from the times of the Cold War, on the part of African states. This could be profitable for Africa's power elite, but not necessarily for Africa's poor.

Keywords: economic integration, trade policy, aid, international migration, regional integration, EU, Africa, China

JEL Classification: F13, F15, F22, F24, F42, F59, N47, P45, R11

Suggested Citation

Kohnert, Dirk, EU-African Economic Relations: Continuing Dominance Traded for Aid? (July 1, 2008). GIGA Working Paper No. 82, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2125029 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2125029

Dirk Kohnert (Contact Author)

GIGA - Hamburg, Institute of African Affairs ( email )

German Inst. of Global and Area Studies (GIGA)
Neuer Jungfernstieg 21
D-20354 Hamburg
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://dirk2011.jimdo.com/

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