Africa runs as the world walks

Sitshengisiwe Ndlovu
The month of March brings back a sad memory of the passing  away of  one of Africa’s intellectual  giants, Zimbabwean -born  Professor  Thandika Mkandawire who passed on  March 27, 2020.

“Africa must run while others are walking”  is phrase  coined  by Julius Mwalimu Nyerere at the attainment of Tanzania’s independence. Professor Mkandawire  built on this phrase unpacking Africa’s development trajectory sparking off debate on Africa’s development agenda.

In his numerous scholarly articles on development  Professor Mkandawire compels  readers  to  delve into  the narrative of  Africa’s development.

The  AfCFTA  has presented Africans including Africans in the diaspora the opportunity  to create the Africa, wanted  by Africans, copying  what has worked in other countries and rejecting what does not work for Africa. The copying  has to be guided and moderated  by dictates  from the domestic  environment.

The AfCFTA  comes into effect when  up  north  Brexit  has taken a foothold.  Jarmie Mighit a South African political analyst’s  quote captured in the  Forbes Africa  magazine  says  “long term, the AfCFTA faces a Brexit type of threat from the larger economies which may feel like they are giving up too much autonomy by being part of the agreement,”   this reveals an element of scepticism about the AfCFTA. Indeed there are circles  of opinions  that view the  AfCFTA as ambitious and   look  expectantly to some form of  Brexit  within the AfCFTA  due to the unequal economic development  obtaining in other state parties.

Loss of revenues from customs duties   due to tariff  liberalisation  will be  litmus test for state parties  whose economies are reliant on that form of revenue. Research actually shows that these revenues are quite significant in terms of contribution to the fiscus for many African countries. The collection of these revenues is relatively easy and less costly. The AfCFTA of  protocol  of trade in goods  and services has liberalised  90 percent   of tariff s  over a period of  10 to13 years effectively drying up inflows of revenue from that end.

Admittedly the  loss of revenue will occur however,  the welfare   gains  will offset  the  much spoken about  loss of revenue  through  increased intra — regional  trade. Well researched   trade facilitation reforms will increase efficiency in the trade value chains resulting in positive growth within the economies.

Professor Gerard  Erasmus in his  document on trade governess  says  that African States never litigate against each other over trade related matters — they are unlikely to do so in the case of the AfCFTA. The trade dispute mechanism is an area that might present challenges within the AfCFTA the document suggests.

Private parties may not bring their disputes under the AfCFTA although recourse can be pursued through COMESA, ECOWAS and EAS. SADC does not have a Tribunal after it was unanimously abolished by the SADC Member States.

Professor Gerard  Erasmus’s inputs   echo    Professor  Thandika  Mkandwire’s  key note address  during the 2014 Tralac  Annual conference; “Dispute resolution is a fundamental building block of a rules-based system; how can the interests of private parties, which are the real engines of trade, investment and regional integration, be safeguarded, in an environment where member states are reluctant to litigate against each other?”

The dispute settlement mechanism within the AfCFTA mirrors the mechanism that is obtaining within the WTO. The above observation from the scholars are legitimate  in that , the scholars are African and in sync with the  realities of Africa.

The AfCFTA is more than a trade agreement. The bold goals   articulated in the Accelerated Industrialisation Development   Strategy   dovetail with AfCFTA and indeed Africa has to run while others walk as demonstrated by Professor Mkandawire.

The tendency has been for the world to view African countries through the lens of their domestic policy failures which in some cases has been the result of external factors as observed by Professor Mkandawire who spent most of his life writing about development in Africa.

The AfCFTA has been described by the AfCFTA Secretary General Wamkele Mene as Africa’s Marshal Plan. With a  median age of Africa’s population  at 15 years  as posited by Dr Dambisa Moyo  an Africa born renowned global macroeconomist,  Africa has to run while others walk.

Africa  owes it to herself to ensure the success of the AfCFTA by tapping into the  scholarly articles  by  visionaries such as Julius Mwalimu Nyerere, Professor Mkandawire to name a few,  that  proved to the world  that Africa  has always been developing  against all odds. Education has been the foundation of industrial development.  The secret lies in capturing social policy to be  in the centre of developmental   policy as observed by Professor Mkandawire.

The onset of the  AfCFTA  means  it is  now  business unusual as Africa races  to catch up, and the continent has to run  while  others walk. While  Africa runs, she must not leave behind the vulnerable groups.

 

Sitshengisiwe Ndlovu is the president of OWIT ZIMBABWE: MBA/UNCTAD: Trade and Gender Linkages/ IAC Dip/Cert: Trade in Services and SDGs: Robert Schuman Center of Advanced Studies/IDEPCert: Making the African Continental Free Trade Agreement Work. She writes in her personal capacity: For more on trade matters visit her Blog on website:owitzimbabwe.org