Conférence régionale zone Ouest à Bamako en prélude du congrès du MFPA : L’engagement de la jeunesse encouragé pour arriver aux Etats Unis d’Afrique

1. Hummmmm copy and paste. nothing interesting in your comment.

2. The Consequences of the Continental African Free Trade Area
   African countries have established a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) to boost inter-country and inter=regional trade within the continent. However, this Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between African States and European Union, appear to facilitate the easy importation of goods from the EU which is at broader reach, and drive profits away from small and much less efficient African producers to cheaper European imports. Hence, far from encouraging African production, the CFTA unintentionally jeopardizes the continent’s economic well-being and future economic growth.
   The importation of European products into Africa is favorable under two circumstances:
   1) When these products do not compete domestically with the products of African countries, there is no negative effect on the economic integration process.
   2) When they have competitive prices, these EU products contribute to economic welfare gains. But when they are cheap goods exported by EU traders, they can undermine African local production or displace more competitive producers in other parts of the world market.
   One significant concern that must not be overlooked is how the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the EU and African countries will affect the outcomes of the CFTA in promoting intra-African trade.
   Under the EU’s Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), regional groupings of African countries and EU member States offer reciprocal trade preferences to each other. This opening up of the markets of small, inefficient African economies to EU exports will displace domestic production and generate adverse effects. It will also result in a loss of revenue for ACP countries due to the elimination of tariffs on EU imports.
   The main objectives of regional economic integration are increasing inter-country trade, the expansion of the size of regional markets, and attracting foreign direct investment to these larger trading entities. However, since the EU is more competitive, the integration of small African countries with larger developed EU nations will promote a beneficial trade creation in favor of the European Union. Because CFTA countries can import goods more cheaply from more efficient extra regional suppliers than they can from their own inefficient manufacturers, trade will be trade diverted to the EU, leading to welfare losses for African countries. The long term adverse effects will be even more destructive for Africa.

   The Potential Impact of the Continental Free Trade Area on Africa’s Integration and Development Prospects
   Given the large spectrum of production of EU countries, a broad array of European goods, ranging from cereals and livestock to metal products and transport equipment, will have access to the African markets. The production and trade capacities of EU and African nations are totally asymmetric. For example, while 20% EU exports go to eastern and southern African countries, these countries account for only 0.1% of total European imports. West Africa account for 0.5% of European imports. European exports comprise mainly manufacture items, capital goods, fuels, and foods stuffs, while African exports are confined to a narrow range of primary products. Due to this disparity, EPAs based on reciprocity, with their ensuing tariff cuts would benefit the EU. Its export gains would exceed by far any gains Africa could potentially make.
   In terms of the economic integration process, EPAs would lead to trade diversion from Africa, with adverse effects on intra-African commerce. Their impact on African countries’ real income would be negative due to the significant decline in tariff revenues. The importation of goods from the EU would increase dramatically, while African exports to the EU would only increase slightly.
   The lack of coordination of EPA provisions within the African Union’s economic space could jeopardize the adoption of the EU’s Common External Tariff, (CET), which could derail the African economic integration process. Unilateral preferences discourage food self-sufficiency in Africa, slow down the pace of diversification, and distort or dislocate fragile industrial structures. The high trade costs due to lack of heavy transport systems could make imported goods even more expensive and nullify the gains of African countries.

3. The Critical Stage for Merging the Regional Economic Communities to Create a Solid and Well– Articulated Common Market
   First, let us point out the danger of the excessive importance placed on the concept of a Continental Free Trade Area among the 54 member states of the African Union. With the exception of a few countries that have built a more developed industrial base, such as South Africa, Egypt, and some members of the Maghreb Arab Union, the great majority of African have only agricultural products and some raw materials for trading. It is expected that intra-African trade will grow from 10.2 % in 2010 to 15.5% by 2022. In fact, the rise and decline of African revenue are closely linked to the price of exported commodities, such as oil, cocoa, diamonds, gold, cotton, peanuts etc. It appears, therefore, that African countries with more advanced economic development, particularly with more diversified economies, will profit most from this free trade agreement. However, these countries could also face fiercer competition because of the agreements on trade liberalization concluded between the European Union and the regional communities of the African Union. African nations with few products to export, particularly the landlocked countries, whose exports suffer from heavy transport costs would lose on their commercial balance and on their total customs revenue.
   For these reasons, it was ill advised to adopt the European economic integration model for the various African regions and for the entire Continent. This scheme has the establishment of a free trade area as the first stage in the process. Industrialized European economies have an effective, productive economic system equipped with advanced technology and operated by trained staff, which can promote economic diversification and transformation in a short period of time. Moreover, there are many industrial plants that have unused production capacity. In this case, trade liberalization can bring about economic growth by utilizing these resources. In African countries, however, the expansion of trade volume calls for a multi-sectoral approach to economic development and integration. It requires strengthening physical infrastructure through building inter-state roads and railways and increasing electricity generation as well as integrating production by setting up an appropriate industrial base to raise agricultural productivity and modernize the farming and livestock sectors (structural transformation). To do this, you must promote the local production of cheap and appropriate fertilizers and pesticides, fabricate and/or assemble agricultural machinery and equipment, make available relevant rural transportation, and provide rural electrification. We must also help farmers create wire enclosures to enable semi-intensive livestock development, produce rich animal foodstuffs that can facilitate agro-industries.
   Except for the agricultural industry, industrialization depends on using as intermediary products the processing chain components of the semi products of four to five intermediary industries: iron and steel, bauxite, alumina and aluminum, petro-chemicals and chemicals to which you can add the pharmaceutical industry. The analysis of the processing chains of these basic metals will contribute to creating an integrated industrial structure.
   Consequently, we should give priority to agriculture, the agro-food industry, and the agro industry in general. To extend fully integrated support to this sector, we should immediately initiate the creation of a common market for agricultural products at the regional level.
   Later on, we add to this existing common market for agricultural and agro-related goods a common market for all industrial products.
   The rationale behind this approach is obvious. An increase in agricultural productivity would generate hi her income per head. The parallel increase in savings, amounting to 50 billion dollars annually, would be invested in infrastructure development. It is critical, at this point, to conceive a system designed to organize and promote the intermediary industries and a cohesive manufacturing sector. The strengthening of the intermediary and capital goods sectors would require the adoption of special policy measures that seek to formulate the concept of African multinational industries, the discussion and implementation of technological transfer programs and policies, and an emphasis on joint venture enterprises, shared companies, and issues of competition. Even if we limit ourselves for a decade to the production and sale of metal, petrochemical, and chemical semi products, it could generate enough revenue to embark on full scale manufacturing in industrial sectors.
   However, if we choose to spend the next ten years in bureaucratic and procedural discussions related to a Continental Tree Trade Area full of incoherence because of reciprocity with the EU, without engaging our most important sectors, agriculture and industry, in sustainable productivity; if we rush into a Continental Free Trade Area, which in our context must also entail the gradual removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers, the coordination and harmonization of tariff and non-tariff systems among the 54 members of the African Union, and the establishment of a customs union at the continental level by the adoption of a common external tariff; and if we believe that at this point we could also harmonize monetary, financial, and fiscal policies at the continental level when we have failed to do this regionally, we would have little hope of success As in South America, total failure could occur.
   Since the countries within each region have widely different levels of economic development, a system of compensation should be put in place to finance improvement projects from a common regional fund to reduce disparities for the least prosperous nations. This harmonization process should be carried out at the regional level, as it would not be effective at the continental level.
   We believe that member states could achieve regional economic development and integration through formulating and implementing the following programs and policies toward the establishment of the common regional market of goods and services, consisting of:
   The creation of common market for agriculture and food products:
   1) The stabilization of tariffs, customs duties, and other barriers to the intra-community trade of agricultural and food products;
   2) The establishment of a Free Trade Area within each regional through the removal of trade barriers to agricultural and food products, the institution of a common customs union, and the adoption of a common external tariff for these goods;
   3) The expansion of the intracommunity trade of agricultural and food products through the better coordination of trade liberalization and facilitation regimes and instruments throughout each REC;
   4) The construction of an inter-state road system;
   5) The setting-up of industrial base for agriculture and agro–alimentary productivity and modernization;
   6) The promotion of food and agro-industrial products, in addition to the manufacturing of packing materials;
   7) The initiating of a regional common market through market structures, the establishment of a regional monetary union, and the creation of a single regional currency as well as an African central bank in each regional community.

   • Ces Atlantistes Hypocrites qui défilent soit disant pour le climat au titre très anglophone “Fridays for Future” fustigeant les voyageurs “long courrier” mais ces bobo occidentaux sont les premiers à partir en vacances dès les premiers rayons de soleil, et ce n’est pas que la distance qu’il faut blamer,mais aussi et surtout très fréquement!!! ( nombreuses vacances pas plus tard que la semaine prochaine qu’ils commencent déjà à préparer en plus de celle de l’été à venir!) sans compter leurs week-ends de 4 jours!

4. The Creation of a common market for a full-fledged integrated regional industrial structure
   Simultaneously, the same approach will be adopted for the integrated industrial development of each regional community. The industrial base will be composed of the processing chains of four intermediary industries: iron and steel, bauxite, alumina and aluminum, and chemicals and petro-chemicals. Related studies will be conducted in conjunction with the promotion of these vital sub-industrial programs to determine:
   – The definition of African multinational industrial enterprise;
   -The adoption of technology transfer policies
   -The nature of regional joint ventures and shared companies.
   When the common market has been realized, all the components that contribute building-up the economic community will have been defined and set in motion. A regional system of production will have been combined with a regional system of commercialization. It is at the level of the common market where it is rational coordinate the integrated programs of the members communities of the African economic community to achieve a solid, well-articulated continental community, which will then be ready to create the United States of Africa.
   In summary, through the harmonization of the participating regional economic communities, the African common market will be established. It will enable the free movement of people, goods, capital, and services; the integration of economic and social sectors; the establishment of a single internal market and of a continental economic and monetary union; and the creation of an investment Bank, the African central bank and an African monetary fund.
   The United States of America was built in 150 years, step by step; protocols of agreements were negotiated for decades and signed on consent. The extraordinary achievement of the founding fathers was based on the conviction that they might not see the fruits of their hard work and sacrifice, but that the coming generations would inherit a powerful and prosperous Nation. This spirit of devotion should inspire us Africans and teach us to be humble but ambitious for the future.

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