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Neocolonialism or Balanced Partnership?

The State of Agricultural Trade Between the EU and Africa

Ioana Lungu. Österreichische Gesellschaft für Europapolitik - ÖGfE

Buch

englisch

Lungu, Ioana (Verfasser/-in) DNB

ÖGfE Policy Brief

15

ÖGfE

Wien

2018

9 p.

Policy Recommendations

Aid should go beyond addressing the lack of immediate resources and providing material support or temporary external assistance. Focus needs to be on long-term orientation, political conditionality and capacity building on an institutional level.
Economic Partnership Agreement partners have some institutional advantages when it comes to trade with the EU and should make full use of those by protecting sensitive sectors within the framework of trade deals.
Targeted EU assistance for industrialization success stories is crucial, especially since importing back products processed in the EU hurts the same sectors in the domestic market. This could be achieved in the form of sector-specific grants from EU development assistance funds.

Abstract

The narratives in the media with respect to EU external policies and their effects on developing countries generally paint a picture of unequal power dynamics and negative externalities, particularly with respect to international trade and land grabbing. In this Policy Brief, I use trade data to argue that reality is more nuanced and aim to provide a preliminary sketch of the institutional dynamics between the EU and Africa. I focus on agricultural relationships to highlight the interplay between historical path dependencies, colonialism, trade policy and domestic institutions on the EU and African side. While trade is often portrayed in an overly simplified manner as the main factor hindering agricultural development, African countries are often plagued by a long history of extractive institutions, both politically and economically, which lead to a vicious circle of unequally distributed resources, exploitation, insecure human rights and a lack of incentives for innovation. This becomes apparent when examining phenomena such as land-grabbing, which often involves African elites partnering with foreign investors to conclude controversial deals. Overall, this paper aims to highlight the necessity of building institutional capacity, particularly in countries with a long history of extractive institutional continuity, and to underline the importance of state centralisation for agricultural development, so that African partners can fully take advantage of the preferential trade regime with the EU and improve their position with respect to power dynamics.

Österreichische Gesellschaft für Europapolitik - ÖGfE

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