Just twenty years after the end of the Second World War, a visitor, unprejudiced, could reasonably deduce, by comparing his impressions of the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic, that it was France that had lost the war against Germany. Over a relatively short period of time, thanks to a robust American assistance, Germany quickly recovered and settled comfortably, with a well done work and more productivity than its neighbors, in the chair of industrial leader undisputed at the level of Europe. It exported undeniably more than it imported with each of them what would normally have been source of Germanic enthusiasm. Except that, at regular intervals, the neighbors in question “managed” to spoil this pleasure by carrying out repetitive devaluations of their currencies which, in addition to being disappointing, trimmed on the profit margins of German companies. This recurring continental frustration was, so to speak, the norm in German-European trade relations until the end of the eighties of the last century. Apart from taking expensive insurance on this type of risk, there was no other way to avert it. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, which put an end to the Cold War with the Soviet Union, a promising new commercial era seemed to be emerging for all the countries of Western Europe. The idea of a common currency was then timely to arrange everyone. France, and other Latin countries, allowing them to hide the relative weakness of their industrial performance and Germany to settle once and for all the risks associated with the exchange rate.
But, very quickly, the caciques of the countries concerned by the new currency saw there a potential use otherwise more ambitious. Make it a competitor of the Dollar. Perhaps even, it was said, replace the American currency as the first reserve currency at the international level. In this respect, if the other European countries were envious of German performances in the real economy, the Germans had eyes only for the Americans. Thus, towards the end of the seventy years, the German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt predicted, around the year two thousand German exports up to 95% will be done in the service sector to go ahead of the US in this area. The use of a common currency, managed by Germany, was finally in the same direction of the logic of this forecast. But if, until now, the circulation of the Euro has strengthened Germany’s leadership in the industrial sector, the country has not been able to make the promised breakthrough on the international services sector where the United States continues to prance in front of everyone to the great Germanic regret. Peer Steinbrück, the time when he was Minister of Finance in the first government of Angela Merkel, attributed the US performance, particularly in the services sector, largely in the “Dollar effect.” Mr. Steinbrück compared the American currency to a hoover that was capturing 70% of global savings. In other words, EU must first make people dependent on the “Euro” as the US did for the Dollar, but on two centuries time interval, and it will become possible for the Bloc to sell all that he desires. And of course they thought they could do it quickly.
Along the way, after the banking and financial crisis of 2008, the Europeans have emboldened, overriding all the reserves of the IMF, where they have, given their number, a lever comparable to the US, to create their “local IMF” Provisionally called the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which since 2012 has undertaken the repurchase of bad debts (or doubtful debts), that is to say, having little chance of being forever repaid, issued, to one title or another, both by the States and by the private sector of the EU, against fresh money denominated in Euro. Clearly, the European Central Bank has simply resorted to printing money in favor, ultimately, of all European citizens. But this money, we can imagine, ends up for good part landing at home in Africa and is used by opportunists for the purchase of real goods such as Raw Materials, Hotels, Farms and allows these people to regain their economic health at our expense. Better still, with money coming from kind of “printing houses”, these people buy our Moroccan and other African companies and make us work in these factories as they please. So, even if there is no gunboat in this case, the principle of colonization is all the same.
In fact, the desire to establish European preeminence over African trade has not changed since the end of the physical colonization of Africa. In 2007, following the writing of an article in a national newspaper, where I came back on the dependence of our export on the French market, I received in my inbox, just after, a message convoluted (always stored in my archives), sent by an individual from a French Ministry’ site, suggesting that Morocco remained a DOM-TOM type structure (Overseas Department, Overseas Territory). The message is sufficiently clear in the sense that, as colonized Africans, we must accept our fate of “Independence in Dependency”. Moreover, in Morocco or elsewhere in Africa, when almost all of our income comes from the sale of our raw materials in bulk, the means are obviously lacking to us to do and / or act like other free countries in the world.
That said, the continuation, after World War II, of European having a stranglehold on Africa’s wealth is likely to have something to do with a “balance” dictated by the Cold War, which is now part of the history. A whole continent at the mercy of the EU is no longer justified by the current state of affairs. This is all the more so since, while Europe has played a major role in shaping the world in previous times, it produces and / or innovates little, compared to others, in today’s world to keep privileges and / or prerogatives of the past. And that is part of substance of the message that President Trump, and he is not the only one, is trying to make them understand and which is giving them a lot of concern.
On this, and reading between the lines, it seems that a consensus has developed among the EU’s trade opponents internationally. Namely, the project of the common currency and other structures that cement the countries of the EU seem to be a semi-finished job, see sloppy. Therefore, the explanation of the apparent success of the European Group (high standard of living) must be elsewhere. They have put in place sophisticated mechanisms, standards, protocols, practices and other means worthy of small people oriented primarily to the countries of the south to perpetuate their privileges in these markets. Their competitors, Chinese and American in particular, are not fooled and, for considerations the latters must know, the task has returned to President Trump to show the EU the place it deserves from now on. The United States and China seem indeed able to do without trade with the EU. And if they develop their business with Africa, our Continent will also be able to do without the EU, the Euro or the CFA Franc. Europeans can, of course, continue to thrive in trade on the northern shores of the Mediterranean while trying to find new artifices to continue living beyond their own means.
But, let get back to our Continent and the purpose of this article. We must realize that the organizations set up after the Second World War, to codify the diplomatic and trade relations between countries, are at the twilight of their lives and must be changed. Africa, by setting up its Continental Free Trade Area, will soon be ready to contribute to the implementation of the new alternative structures which will have to take into consideration the own needs of our Continent and its population. Measures will, for example, have to be rid of norms and other artificial clauses such as “precautionary principles” set up temporarily to settle permanently. Also, when it comes to investments, people who want to cooperate with our countries should commit to valuing our raw materials here in Africa and adhere to principle of technology transfer. African standards, which remain to be done, will also have to be taken into account in commercial transactions with other regions of the world.
