Some concrete initiatives are expected from the three-day United States (U.S.)-Africa Leaders Summit, which begins tomorrow, Monday.
The U.S. will announce nearly $1 billion in business deals for the region; increase funding for peacekeeping in six African countries and boost food and power programmes.
Uppermost too will be Obama’s strong recommendation for Congress to renew the African Growth Opportunity Act, or AGOA, a 14-year-old trade programme giving most African countries duty-free access to U.S. markets that expires on Sept. 30 next year.
The Summit is being hailed by American officials as a first-of-its-kind event, though a Reuters report refers to it as a belated imitation of Africa gatherings hosted in recent years by China, India, Japan and the continent’s former colonial master Europe.
Total U.S. two-way trade in Africa has actually fallen off in recent years, to about $60 billion in 2013, far eclipsed by the European Union with over $200 billion and China, whose $170 billion is a huge increase from $10 billion in 2000, according to a recent Africa in Focus post by the Brookings Institution.
While African leaders are keen on the AGOA renewal, Robert Besseling, Principal Africa Analyst, Economics and Country Risk, at IHS consultancy, said some are seeking better terms of trade.
“Some countries are skeptical about AGOA because it is oriented towards the U.S. companies and can be politically manipulated,” Besseling said. For example Swaziland was cut from AGOA last month due to U.S. concerns over democracy there.
Obama officials are hoping to leverage U.S. corporations like General Electric Co, Caterpillar Inc and Procter & Gamble Co into more business opportunities in Africa amid intense competition from across the globe.
“In the boards of directors of big global U.S. companies, more and more people are raising their hands at meetings and saying ‘why aren’t we in Africa?’,” said Toby Moffett, a former Congressman from Connecticut and a senior adviser at law firm Mayer Brown LLP, who has represented African governments.
Orji Uzor Kalu, a Nigerian businessman with oil, tourism and other interests in West Africa, echoed such complaints. “I’m not seeing the effort the U.S. made in Asia, they’re not making the same effort in Africa,” Kalu said from his Washington D.C. home.
Lagging Behind
Many Africans feel America is lagging behind China and others in its engagement with their continent.
The world’s richest nation has been slow coming to the party of an economically rising Africa, long dismissed as a hopeless morass of poverty and war, but now offering investors a huge market for everything from banking and retail to mobile phones.
“The United States has fallen perhaps a little bit behind in the race to win African hearts and minds. So I think this is an attempt to compete with the likes of China and the European Union,” said Christopher Wood, an analyst in economic diplomacy at the South African Institute of International Affairs.
The top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Linda Thomas-Greenfield bridles at suggestions that the Obama administration is playing catch-up. “Absolutely not,” she said.
“Our relationship with Africa is a very strong historic relationship … We see this as an opportunity to reaffirm that to African leaders,” she said in a pre-summit conference call.
China races ahead
China overtook the United States as Africa’s biggest trade partner in 2009. Its leaders have criss-crossed the continent, proffering multi-billion dollar loans, aid and investment deals.
From Malabo to Maputo, Africa is studded with signs of Beijing’s diplomatic and commercial outreach: Chinese-built roads, bridges, airports, stadiums, ministries and presidencies.
Since 2009, Obama, despite his African blood through a Kenyan father, has been a far less frequent visitor. His first substantial trip to the continent was only made last year.
Washington’s many embassies in Africa – imposing concrete fortresses built to protect against angry mobs or terrorist attacks – project a cautious engagement from an Obama administration highly sensitive to a home public which has no appetite for overseas interventions after Iraq and Afghanistan.
Even U.S. Army Major-General Grigsby, surrounded by F-18s, C130 transports, helicopters and Humvees at his Camp Lemonnier toehold in the turbulent Horn of Africa, acknowledges the U.S. military’s “small footprint” on a continent where flaring Islamist insurgencies are stirring international concern.
Security, governance and democracy will be on the agenda when Obama engages the leaders in an “interactive” discussion on Wednesday; following business talks with U.S. CEOs on Tuesday and discussions about health and wildlife trafficking on Monday.
Presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan are among a few left off the invitation list because they are not “in good standing” with Washington for failing to respect human rights and democracy.
Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone have dropped out because of the deadly Ebola epidemic ravaging their nations. Thomas-Greenfield said ways of fighting the outbreak would be discussed at the summit.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan will today leave Abuja for Washington DC to participate.
