Dialectical & Policy
Vistas on the Potential for
an African Free Trade Area
Public Lecture – Respublica
Litereria - RL Vol XIII No 419 MMXIX
Costantinos Berhutesfa
Costantinos, PhD
Former Chairperson of the AU
Anti-Corruption Advisory Board
Professor of Public
Policy & Sustainable Institutional Reforms
Abstract
The pact that has evolved in
international trade under GATT and WTO tends to focus on free and fair trade
but it is not sufficient for inclusive affluence. Trade is inherently buttressed
by a reciprocally favourable set of voluntary exchanges that are best conducted
as a compliant venture. Rightful complaints undermine the epitome and veracity of
free trade. Mending these has proven nauseatingly slow.
Hence, the stewardship, management and administration
of the trade relations in Africa are
marked by uniquely austere organisational-strategic issues. Even under
favourable contemporary global conditions, historical, ideological and
strategic characteristics internal and external to Africa still would exist
that make that transition a costly exercise. Characteristics and problems of
this sort can be identified and understood through critical, yet constructive,
analysis focused on certain key elements of the African Common Market. There is no simple or immediate
identification of the challenges in setting up the African Common Market as they actually are; there is only a
definition of them from a certain perspective and towards a certain ‘resolution’.
The vision of the founding fathers of African Unity was to promote unity
and solidarity, rid the continent of the remaining vestiges of colonisation and
apartheid, coordinate and intensify cooperation for development, safeguard the
sovereignty and territorial integrity and promote international cooperation
within the framework of the UN Charter.
Participants in the
complex traffic web of African futures could be torn between professional
caution and the genuine desire for a better future. Such loft visions
notwithstanding, repeated attempts to dispel the prevailing gloom to check the
overall drift towards ‘fragmentation’ have not yielded to popular aspirations. This
raises the fundamental question of what do we mean by African integration in
the first place and does it has indigenous roots. Lurking in the background of
all these questions is the rather disturbing one: is perhaps all this talk of African development an academic or a
public relations exercise? If African leaders want an AU that is relevant to
the ordinary Africans, AU must implement the declarations so far, not another
norm-setting”. The African Common Market will very much depend on free
expression of diverse ideas and beliefs, emergence of supportive set of rules
and economic and political institutions and financing peace in Africa.
Ultimately, the Constitutive Act of the African Union must migrate from “We,
Heads of State and Government of the Member States” to “We the People of the
African Union”.
Key words: African
continental free trade area, African Union, Trade, Tariffs, rules &
institutions
See paper here or https://www.academia.edu/38408744/Dialectical_and_Policy_Vistas_on_African_Free_Trade_Area_RL_Vol_XIII_No_419_MMXIX.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment