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Interview by Helmut Hauschild of the German Newspaper Die Fragen Stellte Subject: The EU-Africa summit November 2007
HH: Your Excellency, will the summit help strengthening relations between Africa and the EU? AS: Absolutely. After 7 years, the summit was long overdue. The EU’s approach towards Africa has changed. In the past, the EU defined its strategy towards Africa without any major involvement of the African countries. Now, we have for the first time a common strategy. There is a major step forward. We now discuss eyeball to eyeball our interests and intentions. HH: What does Africa expect from the EU? AS: The EU is Africa’s biggest trading partner. We want to deepen this relationship through new agreements. The EU can help us to improve our export potential in order to improve the living conditions of the peoples in Africa. HH: Why then has South Africa refused to accede to the Economic Partnership Agreement recently signed between the EU and Southern Africa?
AS:
South Africa
has several reservations, amongst others against the Most Favoured Nation Clause
that has been introduces last minute by the EU into the
Agreement. This
clause foresees that any trade liberalization we agree with other countries will
also benefit automatically the EU.
This is
interference into
South
Africa’s
sovereignty.
We want
to negotiate Trade Agreements with countries like India
or China independently from any understandings
with the EU. HH: Many European politicians are ringing alarm bells that the EU is losing influence compared to China in Africa. Is this justified?
HH: What role is China playing for African states? AS: China ha shared with African states the problem of extreme poverty. China’s economic success is an interesting example. In parallel, China is pursuing an increasingly active Africa policy. The first Africa-China Summit 2006 is the visible sign of China becoming an important donor and investor.
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