The (asymmetric) rules applied to trade with the countries of the African continent have, for the most part, been posed and maintained by one or other of the EU countries, ex-colonizers of Africa. From the economic and commercial point of view, yesterday and today, they aim to keep our countries firmly attached to the Europeans and their control over our wealth. In this respect, the “European market” can be understood as the “French market” in many countries in French-speaking Africa. We refer in this article to the case of Morocco, but the situation may be comparable in other countries of the continent. For example, some 30 years ago, most of the national fleet was made up of French-branded vehicles. Exporters of comparable Asian vehicles have had to make a huge effort to access the Moroccan market. Initially, they had to accept, among other things, to pay 10% more taxes than their competitors from the EU. Still today, Europeans continue to enjoy of great inherited and preserved, colonial-era benefits like better locations for their showrooms, or well-oiled import and distribution circuits and the service of an administration mostly acquired to their cause, etc.
In addition to vehicles, some non-European investors have successfully established themselves in niche markets such as aeronautics and wind power. But investment in the agri-food industry, a key sector of the national economy, where Morocco enjoys a potential for very favorable comparative advantages, in natural and other resources, is still dominated by French-European operators (French or other European). In addition to the knowledge of our “habits and customs”, the “residual colonial” authority (the string of organizations working for the EU), which has eyes everywhere, has put all its weight in locking the sector with regulations and laws that are in force until today. The “merit” goes to some broken arms, among our officials of the ministries of supervision, who indulge in the dirty work of “copy / paste” and the maintenance in application, against all common sense, of regulatory texts sometimes set up at era of colonization to serve the interests of the colonizer. The essence of the laws in question is to perpetuate the types of exchanges that largely favor French-Europeans to the detriment of other interested investors. In other words, the regulatory texts as a whole aim to maintain the importation of finished products “Made in EU” (Made in France), paid dearly in Euro, and the export at low prices of raw materials sold to Europe. The example of the free trade agreement signed between Morocco and the US for almost fifteen years, and so far a dead letter, illustrates how much Franco-Europeans are omnipotent in our national market. The multitude of tools (regulatory and practices) used in this way are discussed in other articles of this blog. In these circumstances, a non-European investor wishing to engage in one component or another of our agri-food sector, and who wants to maintain its presence, has had, so far, no choice but to take a Franco-European partner. In this respect, the review of operators who count in the Moroccan agri-food sector, all segments combined shows that this rule has indeed been widely followed.
Also, among the companies mentioned above, which are well established on our national market, some emphasize certification documents and / or quality control that are edited and signed abroad (our archives). To our knowledge, the Kingdom of Morocco has not signed mutual recognition agreements with EU countries for this type of service. So, the unlawful validation of such documents for use on Morocco market is a flagrant disregard of the EU for our institutions and our national sovereignty. In our opinion, this deception, verifiable at any time, must first be attributed to the mediocrity of the work of some officials (who have done their time) of the ONSSA (National Office of Sanitary Safety Food), the body of guardianship over our agri-food sector, which, de facto, contravenes the regulations in force in Morocco when it is supposed to ensure its sound application. The available data show that such colonial-type documents circulate widely elsewhere in Africa, thus conveying the same type of disregard for local regulations. If, despite its great wealth, Africa has the greatest number of poor people in the world, the responsibility now lies, in our view, with those of our lazy leaders, in Morocco and elsewhere, even more than the past actions of colonial leaders.
In this respect, His Majesty King Mohammed VI has emphasized on many occasions Morocco’s solidarity with other friendly African countries and the duty our country has to contribute to the co-development of our African continent. Regarding the agri-food sector, our opinion is that before addressing such a program of assistance to others, Morocco should relinquish the type of civil servant mentioned above to regain credibility with countries that wish entering the globalized market without restrictive rules of colonial essence.
Apart from this, the EU must realize that the time of exclusivity they have had on the African Trade / Economy is now behind them. The internationalization of African trade that has started is irreversible. In addition to other countries like China, Japan, India, Russia, Turkey, the Gulf countries and others, there is now the USA which is interested in trading directly with our Continent. In this regard, the review of the writings and other announcements of EU officials in the media recently let appear an EU which has lost its haughtiness. Europeans are now posing as victims of what they call “sharks” which want harming the UE like China, Russia and, a first, the United States. Instead of recognizing their mistakes about the suffering and looting they inflicted on Africa, and compensate for it, they persist in a soporific speech by promising the entire continent a free trade agreement with the quick creation of ten million jobs. One must have fallen on one’s head to believe such nonsense promises assimilating the creation of a job to preparing a jar of yoghurt! From memory of a historian, they have impoverished this continent and plundered its resources, and now they promise to do in five years what they have refused to do in four centuries.
In fact, why should the other powers would want harming the Europeans? It would be good for them to tell us. It must be remembered that, apart from Germany, in reprieve for the moment, the other countries of the European continent have difficulty in exporting anything competitively. Maybe the powers in question find that the Europeans does not have the means for their policy and that it is high time for the EU to let African trade breathe better!
