Symposium Abstracts

Day 1, Monday

Strategic Plan of the African Union Commission on Rural Economy and Agriculture

Emmanuel N. Tambi

African agriculture and the rural economy suffer from low productivity, limited diversification and continuous degradation. Sustainable development of agriculture and the rural economy is critical for ensuring food security and poverty reduction in Africa. The African Union Commission considers the development of agriculture and the rural economy as a necessary condition for promoting accelerated economic, social and political development, and for attaining its shared vision of building an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, an Africa driven and managed by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the international arena. The Directorate of Rural Economy and Agriculture (REA) is one of eight portfolio Directorates of the Commission given the mandate to initiate, promote and facilitate the implementation of policies, strategies and programs that can contribute to the transformation of the rural economy by increasing agricultural productivity, conserving and protecting natural resources as well as enhancing environmental sustainability. To more efficiently and effectively contribute to the AU Commission’s vision, the REA Directorate has elaborated a strategic plan that will guide its actions over the next four years (2004-2007). The plan identifies the strategic objectives and outputs to be achieved and defines the activities and strategies for accomplishing the outputs. It envisages actions that address four strategic objectives through six program areas. Successful implementation of the plan, it is believed, will help create enabling conditions and facilitate actions to improve agricultural productivity, reduce food insecurity and rural poverty as well as to ensure sustainable management of natural resources and the environment.

Regional Networking and Multilateral Context: Enhancing Capabilities in Africa (Abstract 1.2)

Marwan Soliman

The market mechanism, which arouses passion in favor as well as against, is a basic arrangement through which people can interact with each other and undertake mutually advantageous activities. The overall achievements of the market are deeply contingent on political and social arrangements. In the context of developing countries in general, the need for public policy initiatives in creating social opportunities is crucially important. The world trade has been politically framed towards liberalism and openness. It is evident that this openness has its own grades and interests that command it. Developing countries have been directed, and pushed towards a playing ground they fear and ignore. But one can argue that even developed countries have to go through such stages. The whole difference here is the gap between where the latter stood when they decided to move toward openness and where developing countries do stand today. A simple and obvious proof of that is the increasing number of regional trade agreements (RTAs) in following papers for convenience that most countries have adopted. If we agree that regional networking should serve coordinating interests, RTAs came to answer a multilateral dilemma: multilateral negotiations are asking different and diversified countries, economies and cultures, to melt into a single frame defined by the European Union, the United States of America and Japan. In this paper we will first examine the regional trade in the context of world trade. Part 2 will discuss main incentives of regional cooperation, what explains the different forms of RTAs exhibited in part 3. Part 4 will contrast regionalism and multilateralism. My conclusion will be in the direction of agreements as a tool but will meet governance through development of capabilities.

Performance of African Agricultural Exports and External Market Access Conditions under International Trade Reforms (Abstract 1.3)

Hezron Omare Nyangito

Sub Saharan African agriculture is currently facing challenges in international trade with respect to external market access conditions and competition in world markets as a result of trade liberalization efforts under the world trade organization (WTO) agreements and in particular the agreement on agriculture (AoA). This paper presents the performance of agricultural exports for selected countries and indicates external market barriers faced and the resulting implications of the barriers on WTO Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations. The composition of agricultural exports and markets shows that exports from Sub Saharan Africa are less diversified with only five commodities mainly coffee, cocoa, cotton, hides and skins, and horticultural crops dominating in most countries. Markets are also concentrated on only a few countries with the European Union being a major market although intra-Africa trade has increased in recent years because of regional integration efforts. Important external market access barriers faced are tariff peaks and escalation particularly for agro-processed and livestock products in developed countries and non-tariff barriers particularly sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS), and technical barriers to trade (TBTs) measures, safeguard and anti-dumping measures, and domestic and export subsidies on agricultural products for developed countries. The performance of agricultural exports from Sub Saharan Africa based on production and value for the period 1990 to 2000 shows mixed trends across countries and commodities.  In general, there has been an increase in production and exports of non-traditional commodities but exports of traditional exports for some countries show an increasing trend while for others they have stagnated or even declined due to declining world market prices and domestic marketing problems. In conclusion, the future of increased exports from Sub Saharan Africa countries lies in value-adding for traditional commodities and diversification to non-traditional products such as flowers, fruits and, fish and fish products. Thus, tariff escalation and peaks for agro-processed products and NBTs such as SPS and TBT are important issues to be focused on during multilateral trade negotiations, as they are major barriers to increasing exports from Sub Saharan Africa. Domestic and export subsidies in developed countries are also of concern because they reduce the competitiveness of products from Sub Saharan Africa by depressing world market prices besides making it difficult for these  countries to diversify their agriculture.