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
There are 2 versions of this paper
EU-African Economic Relations: Continuing Dominance, Traded for Aid?
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: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Agricultural Trade Reform and the Doha Development Agenda
By Kym Anderson and Will J. Martin
-
The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act and its Rules of Origin: Generosity Undermined?
By Aaditya Mattoo, Devesh Roy, ...
-
The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act and its Rules of Origin Generosity Undermined?
By Aaditya Mattoo, Devesh Roy, ...
-
Market Structure and Market Access
By Joseph F. Francois and Ian Wooton
-
Commercial Policy Variability, Bindings and Market Access
By Joseph F. Francois and Will J. Martin
-
Commercial Policy Variability, Bindings and Market Access
By Joseph F. Francois and Will J. Martin
-
By Bernard Hoekman, Marcelo Olarreaga, ...