In Addis Ababa, the African Union has just announced the entry into force of Acfta (African Continental Free Trade Area) for May 30th. This date will mark the beginning of the process of commercial and economic emancipation of our continent. But to move towards a better integration of African countries, and boost trade between all of them, much work remains to be done as discussed in this text.
In fact, intra-African trade does not exceed 15% of Africa’s total trade for the moment. And, with regard to trade with the EU, which monopolizes most of the trade of our continent, we sell them mainly our Raw Materials, often in bulk and at ridiculous prices, and we import dearly the Finished Products which derive from them. It follows that the majority of our countries, which have little to offer, have longstanding structural deficits. Curiously, among the EU countries to which we are selling our resources, the trade balance of some of them is positive only with us in Africa. In other words, without the commercial and / or economic subterfuges that these countries impose on us, they would be largely downgraded in Africa in terms of competitiveness by their competitors from Asian countries, America and elsewhere. It therefore seems that the perseverance of asymmetrical EU trade with us is only protected for the time being by certain barriers (see below) of European design. So with the Acfta starting, it is our duty as Africans to find the appropriate means to enforce the rules of healthy competition for our trade with the rest of the world to remedy this anomaly.
It is worth remembering that the subjugation of African trade to the EU’s will is not due to Hazard. They have their methods for that in the forefront of which there are the standards, or non-tariff barriers. These standards must be developed by scientific and technical personnel on objective (neutral) grounds. But the policies of agricultural Europe are appropriating them, as soon as they can, to exploit them according to convoluted protocols for the sole purpose of maximizing the profits for their countries and keeping the hand on African wealth. For example, by arguing that elaboration of standards is slow by reference bodies for international trade, where the EU acts as it pleases, European countries frequently avoid the rules of the Codex Alimentarius by creating their own standards which they impose on us through EU methods that sometimes are esoteric. In addition, they put forward private organisms of their obedience to monitor our adherence to these dictates, which may consist, among other things, of certifications according to private repositories of their choice. They also decide how to apply these rules to their borders and who to apply them to without any possibility of independent recourse for African exporters. All of this is in defiance of established Codex rules. These methods of managing the EU’s market access are closer to commercialism than to science and objectivity. The result of this policy is that the doors to the EU market for African products open up according to administrative decisions, supposedly coming from decision-makers in Brussels, most often foreign to the field of Sanitary Safety of Food products. Unfortunately, access to the “pooled market” is at this price.
But with the launch of the Acfta, Africa is showing its willingness to free itself from the centuries-old enslavement of the EU. In this process, we must get rid of non-tariff standards that are not anchored in international regulations or that harm the interests of our countries. Looking more closely, European customers, who represent statistically 6 to 7% of the world’s consumers, come back dear for what they report to the African agriculture and agri-food sector. However, Africa has enormous potential in this area, on which the Acfta will decide to rely to take our continental destiny in hand. In this respect, to sell our goods on the globalized market, international regulations, endorsed by all the countries of the Planet, require compliance with Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) *. And these principles of the HACCP System are freely available from the Codex Alimentarius and also how to put them in place. Sometimes a buyer may request the opinion (Audit) of a third party on the HACCP System of the exporter by agreeing to share the costs. This is perfectly normal in the merchandise trade. But we are far from the unbounded demands of the EU market players.
Of course, selling raw materials in bulk or unprocessed will not allow Africa to ensure its development within a reasonable time. From the moment we have raw materials, it is recommended to transform them to give them value and sell them as Finished Products within acceptable commercial times. In this respect, the techniques relevant to the transformation (Processing) of agricultural resources exist and, for the most part, are in the public domain. In other words, these techniques are accessible via the Codex Alimentarius and other organisms. Some American Universities offer free advice on what can be done as Finished Products from Raw Materials and the “Processes” they can advise are acceptable to the official control bodies. We are also, within the AEFS (Association of African Experts in Food Safety); open to make our contribution if we are asked.
In conclusion, Acfta, which will make all African consumers available to African businesses, comes at the right time to expand all the tools currently available for the African Union, to give a new impetus to the development of our continent.
*: Recently, this Repository was renamed HARPC (Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls) in the FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act). The health risk management approach remains the same for both systems.
