Africa's anti-trade reality

I have often wondered whether Africa really wants to trade. It seems absurd to think that African states wouldn’t be pro-trade, but perhaps the trade problem isn’t as much tariff related as NGOs and African lobby groups would like us to believe. Perhaps it’s that many African states have chosen policies that make it difficult to impossible for their goods and services to even entertain the idea of accessing outside markets. While I’m not disputing the fact that EU and US subsidies are unfair – especially since structural adjustment programmes call for the scrapping of subsidies by African governments in the name of free trade – I am saying that poor links to other states and the outside world make us unlikely benefactors of globalisation.

Gauteng’s - Africa’s most economically active region – premier recently said that "we must trade more with ourselves if we are to trade more effectively with the world". Effectively he said that a lack of infrastructure acts as a barrier to entry for intra-trade and this inhibits our capacity to access global markets. This seems obvious, if you can’t move your goods, you can’t sell ‘em. Simple. But what about areas where ‘economic infrastructure’ is already available?

In 1999 African states met with the aim of opening up their skies and by 2006 all that has been managed is a small task team comprising of airlines that do not necessarily have the best track record in terms of an ‘open sky policy’. South Africa’s state-owned carrier features prominently and has been accused many times of abusing market dominance and its link to the state. I definitely don’t see this carrier leading the way in opening up Africa’s skies, thereby promoting trade.

So while it may be easy to say that big international countries are hampering the growth of goods from African markets, it may be wise to take a step back and question the trade barriers within. There are some goods things happening though. New road links are being negotiated almost daily, rail networks are being expanded and redeveloped, and some of the political barriers are being abolished. These are big steps forward and should be applauded and perhaps after all this development, international trade barriers won't matter all that much.