The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), Thursday called for a new deal that prioritises the needs of Africa as a continent and its states.
This is as he said the high rate of talent drain from Africa, which is provoking political crises in the EU, could not be resolved by the Fortress Europe approach.
Instead, more opportunities must be created for Africans at home, providing better alternatives to desperate journeys through the Mediterranean.
Buhari said these in an opinion article published in The Politico to mark the participation of Nigeria at the ongoing 6th EU-AFRICA summit in Brussels, Belgium, President Muhammadu Buhari today, Thursday.
According to the piece titled ‘It’s time for a new economic deal between the EU and Africa,’ Buhari argued that the economic relationship between the two continents must be recalibrated to focus on job creation.
“When it comes to the relationship between the European Union and Africa, unfair arrangements have long been skated over for lack of alternatives.
“Increasingly unsustainable, these one-sided deals have provoked calls from both sides of the Mediterranean for a partnership of equals. At the EU-Africa Summit, leaders from across my continent will gather with their European counterparts to transform such rhetoric into substance.
“The EU is currently Africa’s largest trading partner, and Africa is the fastest-growing continent on earth. While each presents the other with great opportunities, as partners, we also share a host of problems. Today, the EU-Africa relationship must be shifted toward a new economic arrangement to address them.”
Citing figures about Africa’s population rise to 1.3 billion and Nigeria’ rise to 400 million by 2050, he said irregular migration (triggered by skewed trade deals between Europe and Africa) would continue to be a challenge.
“Despite its best efforts, Europe will not find a sustainable remedy to this problem by further reinforcing its Fortress Europe approach.
“Instead, more opportunities must be created for Africans at home, providing alternatives to the decision to take a life-threatening boat journey to seek them elsewhere.
“The relationship between the EU and Africa must be rebalanced to power job creation. Unfortunately, today’s arrangements do just the opposite,” Buhari opined.
The President further argued that where some claim preferential trade policies with the EU lend a helping hand to Africa, the accurate picture is far more complicated.
“For example, though agricultural subsidies to EU farmers may not be the same as external tariffs, their effects are identical: They make Africa’s exports uncompetitive. More than €50bn is ploughed into keeping European food produce cheap. With its main export market distorted against them, African countries are deprived of foreign exchange, and investment in agriculture is stifled.
“Conversely, Economic Partnership Agreements give Europe deeper access to African markets. At the lower end of the value chain, these free-trade deals ensure EU agricultural subsidies deliver another blow to African farmers, as artificially depreciated produce floods the market, undermining domestic competitors.
“At the higher end of the value chain, premature trade liberalisation demanded by these EPAs have put nascent manufacturers out of business. In other cases, industries simply don’t materialise because there is no incentive to enter the market. Consequently, the jobs required to satisfy millions of young Africans joining the employment market every year are not created,” he said.
According to Buhari, these reasons necessitated Nigeria’s decision not to sign an EPA. But this was only possible because of her place as the largest economy in Africa. Smaller nations have little choice.
He also argued that the unease over such deals is not limited to Africans as warnings from within the EU, including from development ministers, have stated the deals are irreconcilable with poverty reduction pledges and UNed Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
To address these deep-seated challenges, he said the solution goes beyond rewriting agreements.
“We must also change the way we interact. Speaking with one voice, Africa can mobilise its collective clout to gain better deals for itself on the world stage. Today we meet as continents, and our trade relations should reflect that.
“Moving forward, it is clear what a new economic deal between our unions should entail. For Africa, it must offer a chance for a fundamentally new economic deal.
“For Europe, it must provide the chance to rid itself of a trade policy that quashes job-creation in Africa and hinders efforts to stem economic migration to Europe,” he said.
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