Vol. 72/No. 1      January 7, 2008

The meeting of heads of state of the 53-member African Union and the 27-nation European Union was promoted by EU leaders as a way to foster a new era of close relations between Europe and Africa. The summit was held in Lisbon, Portugal. Portugal, which holds a six-month presidency of the EU, was the first European power to colonize Africa and the last to leave. A previous Africa-EU summit, also hosted by Portugal, took place seven years ago.

The African continent holds a wealth of natural resources, including petroleum, gold, and diamonds. But the economic development of the African nations has been greatly distorted by the exploitative economic relations imposed by imperialist countries. For example, while the gross domestic product (GDP) per person in the United States is $43,800 and in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom is more than $31,000, the per capita GDP in Africa ranges from $600 in Malawi and Somalia to $13,300 in South Africa.

The EU holds first place among African countries’ trading partners. It carried out trade with Africa worth $315 billion in 2006.

At the same time, the rise in trade and aid packages negotiated with African countries by both China and the United States in recent years poses a threat to capitalists in the countries that are members of the EU. In 2006 Beijing held a summit for African leaders. Trade between China and Africa, now accounting for 10 percent of the latter’s total trade, has risen tenfold in the past decade. U.S. trade with African nations has also been rising.

For three decades the EU has held a “preferential trade agreement” with African countries. The arrangement, while allowing African countries some tariffs to protect domestic agriculture and industry, perpetuated their unequal relationship with imperialism and maintained the European powers’ trade dominance in Africa.

The World Trade Organization had ruled that the agreement was unfair to Europe’s competitors and violated international trade rules. It will expire at the end of the year.

In response, EU leaders have proposed “Economic Partnership Agreements” (EPAs), which they are negotiating with individual countries or groups of countries.

While about a dozen African governments have signed such deals, most have not including Senegal, South Africa, Nigeria, and Zambia.

“It’s clear that Africa rejects the EPAs,” said Senegal president Abdoulaye Wade. “We are not talking any more about EPAs, we’ve rejected them … we’re going to meet to see what we can put in place of the EPAs,” he said.

African Union Commission president Alpha Oumar Konare criticized the African leaders who have signed the interim deals. “Our dearest hope is that the interim accords don’t tie down the rest [of the countries] and complicate things afterwards,” Konare said.

The summit ended in discord with the refusal of most African leaders to accept EU trade proposals and the failure of British prime minister Gordon Brown to exclude Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe. Since 2002, London, Washington, and other imperialist powers have used economic and travel sanctions to press for a government in Zimbabwe more compliant to their interests.

In the weeks leading up to the summit, Brown led a pressure campaign on African leaders to prevent Mugabe from attending the summit. Brown vowed to boycott the gathering if Mugabe attended.

The presidents of South Africa and Zambia opposed the demand to exclude Mugabe, and announced they would not attend the summit if he was not permitted to attend. Germany and Portugal opposed Brown’s call for a boycott.

In the end Mugabe attended and Brown stayed away.  
 
 
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