Among the elements that characterized the period of the last war there was food rationing all over Europe. Switzerland, for example, had to sacrifice some of their cattle to recover enough farmland for the growing, particularly, of potato and cabbage to feed people. According to newspaper reports of the time, the Swiss health had been the best at that period of war with a ration of meat once a week. But rationing has left its mark and, after the war, each European country has opted for legislation recommending food self-sufficiency. To implement this principle, studies were undertaken to analyze the population increase compared to the growth in agricultural production. The observed results, showing a progression much faster for human population compared to food supply, and consequences deduced after that, have greatly altered the course of events internationally. This article aims to summarize those elements with a focus on Africa.
The US quiet period in Africa
The period known as the Cold War had its own benchmarks. You had Soviet Union and countries under its thumb and, on the other hand, the United States and allied countries. China still asleep and Africa put under surveillance and intentionally left in wilderness. The Soviet model is exactly the opposite of that promoted by American capitalism; the main priority of the USA was therefore to contain the spread of the communist bloc in the world. One of the conditions (unwritten or withheld) to rally Western Europe to this program was to “let them do whatever they wanted with Africa”. In this respect, if it was possible in those days to get products and American equipments in Africa in general and Morocco in particular, there was a need to systematically go through a European country as relay. With the chain of intermediaries to pay, American products were necessarily much more expensive. But this shortfall for American companies was the price to be paid by the USA to push the Europeans to join the “anti-Soviet priorities” decided by “Uncle Sam”. Moreover, Europeans took advantage from this period, under the discreet gaze of Americans, to strengthen their southern borders, integrating Spain in particular, to guard against African emigration which was going to happen anyway as the consequence of the state of “acute poverty” in which European colonial policy had decided to circumscribe the continent.
The awakening of China and its implications
Just after the war, it was possible for an American to pay himself a one-month trip to Europe, return to America to find that he saved up money from his monthly salary. American industry, which operated at full capacity, had developed huge appetites. In contrast, China, hardly woken up, was in need of everything. A market of hundreds of millions of consumers, quite enticing for American businessmen, they then did every effort possible to successfully link their government with China. This reconciliation which helped disassociate, a little bit, China from the Soviet Union, also accelerated the industrial development of the Chinese giant who was looking now to export its cheap manufactured goods. Africa, with its low-income, was an appropriate target. The rise of China on one side, the repeated battering of the American administration on the other, especially under Reagan, coupled with the aspiration of the satellite countries of the Soviet empire, who sought their freedom every day with more passion, helped in fracturing of Soviet bloc which finally yielded with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. Relieved of the burden of fighting against the Soviet empire, the Americans were willing now to put their energy into their other planetary ambitions.
America rediscovers Africa
Everyone knows the prohibitive cost of the efforts that the Americans have implemented with the Marshall Plan to restore European countries after the Second World War, especially Germany, whose infrastructures were flattened by the war and poisoned with the bombs still not exploded. We are less aware of efforts that the USA has done to stabilize Asia and consolidate their business model starting from Japan and South Korea. In the latter country, Americans have invested, from the fifties to the late seventies of the last century, more money than what the African continent received like investments during the same period. Now the export strength of South Korea, which has to import two thirds of the food it consumes, is the only guarantee of its prosperity. As for geography, Morocco is much better off than Korea in term of food potential. But as the speech of His Majesty pointed out at the opening of this session of Parliament; since independence, we have never been in a better position than today to become an emerging country. Like other powers such as China, Americans are very interested in taking off from Africa so to strengthen their business in the continent. In addition, Uncle Sam has the experience to do things thoughtfully. Thus, having, with other countries in our own region, dubbed Morocco as a great example for the development of the African continent is a good omen for the success of the kingdom in this new role.
Morocco as a locomotive for Africa
Almost all the conditions are met to allow Morocco to play the rightful role of locomotive for Africa. In our opinion, it still lacks one essential element, namely the willingness to adopt English as the language for its trade internationally, a choice that contributed to make of some countries, very poor once, dragons now of the current global economy, such as South Korea. Regarding the food industry, the opportunity was given to me recently to discuss a pre-printed document written in French (veterinary health certificate which I have a copy) that ONSSA (National Agency for Sanitary Safety of Food Products) officials have sent to embassies in Rabat with the idea they approve the draft by competent authorities of their respective countries. Clearly, exporting countries concerned are called upon in the future to support their animal products by the relevant document duly completed, signed and stamped by the relevant stakeholders in their countries. The drafting document breaks international standards, particularly when it recalls scientific and technical criteria to be met without citation of the reference from which they were taken. Incidentally, in the year two thousand, I was commissioned by an American Audit Office, with whom I worked to set up their subsidiary in Switzerland for Europe and MENA (Middle North Africa East). To this end, I was received in Lausanne by the Director General of the Department of Investment of the Canton de Vaud, responsible for North America that told me: “I know you did your studies here in Lausanne, but you are here as an envoy of an American company. So I ask you to give me your report in English. It will then be sent, via the police department for foreigners, to Bern to agree to allow that you work here as an expert”. To my question whether the Vaud police want to read a report in English, his immediate answer: “Yes. Do not worry about that”. So, in western Switzerland, policemen of French mother tongue, for whom food sector is not their cup of tea, accept the effort to read a document in English. In Morocco, ONSSA, supervisory authority over the food industry requires, contrary to international practice, countries that want to trade with us do so in French so to avoid for them to read English as an upgrading effort!
In the same vein, and in conclusion, the story that goes back twenty years and has been reported to me by a reliable source. Appointed for a short time as head of the EACCE (Autonomous Establishment of Coordination and Control of Exports), a Moroccan setting, which was returning from a training course in the United States FDA, called a contact in the US Agency to indicate his desire to see the FDA soon sign a “MoU” (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Moroccan agency, what the American official responded: “Let’s start by establishing a line of dialogue, then we’ll see for the” MoU “. Twenty years later, it appears that officials ONSSA are still not prepared for this line of dialogue.
