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COMMENTARY
We
Want Trade, Not Aid
By YOWERI K.
MUSEVENI
The rich countries have a choice. Either let
Africa have real access to your markets for products, especially agriculture, in
which we have a comparative advantage, or acknowledge that you prefer to keep us
dependent on your handouts. But aid is a recipe for permanent poverty. The only
way we can break out of this vicious cycle is through trade and export-led
growth. That is why the collapse of the Cancun WTO meeting ran so counter to
Africa's interests.
Africans will live or die depending on whether the
world's wealthiest economies -- and some of the more advanced developing ones,
too -- lower import barriers and scale back the agricultural subsidies and
overproduction which depress world prices and close rich country markets to
Africa's rural majority. In 2001, U.S. agribusiness exported wheat for $3.50 a
bushel which cost American farmers $5.31 to produce. Cotton which cost U.S.
growers 83 cents a bushel to produce was sold abroad for 40 cents. Soybeans,
maize, rice -- same story. How can my farmers move beyond subsistence, how can
my farm-based economy free itself of aid, when the largest economies -- the EU
is a worse offender -- dump commodities at a fraction of what they cost to grow?
And how, at the day's end, can this be good for your farmers or broader
economy?
A study by the Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development at
Iowa State University -- in the heart of your farm belt -- points up an
absurdity. The agricultural support polices of high-income countries are
crushing output and incomes of poor-world farming households. But here's the
irony: Under current policies, rich-country taxpayers "are paying twice for
development assistance: once to reduce the incomes of poor farmers and again to
alleviate the same poverty."
Shouting at the dark will fix nothing. But
we have candles to light. We have a rules-based trading system and we can change
the rules. That is the beauty, the challenge, of the WTO. It is not a debating
society. Its decisions are binding and enforceable. It reaches those decisions
by consensus. Regardless of size or per capita GDP, each of its member states
has an effective veto. That power gives Africa a real say, but only if we use it
sensibly, not for theatrical effect.
The breakdown at Cancun was not the
exclusive fault of any one country or bloc. I do, however, believe that with a
clearer vision of our priorities and the reciprocities needed to achieve them,
we Africans could have done more to keep the negotiations on track. On the eve
of Cancun, we found a formula to ensure that WTO rules on intellectual property
would not be an obstacle to countries such as mine obtaining desperately needed
new medicines at affordable prices. Others, purporting to represent our
interests, wanted to derail an agreement on this critical issue. We said no. We
would not be pawns for the self-interested agendas of other, more advanced,
developing countries in Asia and Latin America. Nor would we take our cue from
the swelling army of NGOs who often seem to think they are more fit to represent
our people than we are.
There is no room for reflexive solidarity. We
must be realists. The layers of market-distorting subsidies and tariffs cannot
be swept away at the stroke of a pen. But the sooner we can begin their
elimination, the better for all. According to the Iowa State study, rich-country
reforms could, by 2015, increase the value of farm output in sub-Saharan Africa,
excluding South Africa, by $3.4 billion a year. And American farmers will
benefit too, to the tune of $5.5 billion a year. The value of agriculture in
low- and middle-income countries would be $63 billion greater than today --
dwarfing development assistance.
I am convinced U.S. Trade Representative
Robert Zoellick is serious about achieving an outcome that will help unlock
Africa's stifled economic potential. Last year he unveiled a truly bold proposal
on agriculture. Those of us with a common interest in real change should have
stood beside him and fought for it, instead of allowing it to be watered down to
satisfy the EU. But now it's time to move on. As rich countries right their
policies, prices at the farm gate will increase, causing incomes in developing
countries to rise and creating new markets and investment opportunities for U.S.
business. Isn't that a better way to promote development in Africa? Of course it
is, which is why the sooner we get the Doha round back on track the better for
everyone. No one can afford further delay.
Mr. Museveni is
president of Uganda.
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