Africa awaits word on Obama’s trade policies for the region

There is no official word yet about the US government standpoint – led by new Democratic president Barack Obama – on trade issues with Africa. US Embassy press attaché Sharon Hudson-Dean told FTW that the Obama administration was still putting together its foreign affairs team. “They haven’t yet made any specific statements on Africa policy and trade,” she said – and suggested that, until the team is in place, very little is likely to be forthcoming. The big issues are, of course, duty-free trade into the giant US market, US trade aid to Africa, and the African export incentive programme, the US Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). The Democrats, last in power under president Bill Clinton, have always been supportive of trade stimulus schemes for Africa. But the new regime has a bigger trade issue at the moment, and that’s all part of the US$900- billion economic stimulus plan still being debated in Congress. European authorities have already warned that any protectionist elements included in the package – and the Obama administration’s “Buy American” theme for the programme is one that’s under scrutiny – could trigger a trade war. Although the US has hinted that UK prime minister Gordon Brown promoting “Jobs for the British” and European Union member governments pumping state aid into enfeebled car companies may also contravene World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules – the UK and the EU deny this. Their controls on state aid, said an EU press statement, were much more rigid than those of the US, and in no way contravened the WTO’s antiprotectionist stance. Obama seems to have got the message, being quoted by Forbes magazine as himself warning about the dangers of falling into a protectionist mire, and that any protectionist provisions included in the economic stimulus plan could lead to trade warfare. And, until this urgent and sensitive issue is satisfactorily solved, it is unlikely that government thinking will encompass trade policy with Africa, although press attache Hudson-Dean promised to keep FTW readers informed of any such moves.