Africans fear 'ruin' in Europe trade talks

by Gumisai Mutume

The warnings are grim. Cape Verde may lose 80 per cent of its import revenues. Three-quarters of Ghana's industry may collapse. And African countries could end up even more dependent on trade with Europe than with each other. Such worries about the possible impact of ongoing "free trade" negotiations between Europe and its former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) are beginning to galvanize public debate in the region.

African governments, policy analysts, regional economic groups and civil society organizations are increasingly speaking with one voice: the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) now being hammered out between Europe and the ACP countries must be significantly modified to safeguard those countries' prospects for development.

"If the EPAs are signed as they are, it will be suicide and death for farmers," said Jules Zongo, national president of Burkina Faso's regional chambers of agriculture, at a protest march of 2,000 farmers in that country's capital, Ouagadougou, in December 2006.

African leaders have taken note of such calls. When heads of state from throughout West Africa converged on Ouagadougou for a summit meeting in January 2007, Burkina's President Blaise Compaoré affirmed that the "legitimate concerns" of farmers and other producers must be considered in any trade talks with the European Union (EU).

Beyond the concrete impact that the new agreements may ultimately have on people's lives, the negotiations are attracting wider attention for another reason : they began at a time when talks to further liberalize global trade, under the so-called Doha round of the World Trade Organization (WTO), seemed stalled.

One factor in the indefinite suspension of the Doha round last year was the reluctance of richer countries to liberalize their agricultural sectors, while at the same time they insisted that developing nations open their own economies even further to products from the North. Some analysts regard the EPA negotiations as an attempt by the more powerful EU to extend to its weaker ACP trading partners, through a different forum, agreements that it could not obtain at the WTO. The 27 countries of the EU have a combined gross domestic product of US$14 billion, while 39 of the 79 ACP nations are among the world's least developed countries (LDCs).

Some developing countries now fear that the EU's approach to such EPAs will oblige them to remove trade protections so quickly and to such an extent that the development of their own industries will be harmed. "At no point in time was an EPA as a free trade agreement the first choice for the ACP," says Mauritius' ambassador to the EU, Sutiawan Gunessee. "It was not. But we had no alternative. "

In contrast, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson views the EPAs as beneficial. He argues that they will shift the relationship between the EU and Africa from one of dependency on tariff preferences to one that promotes business competitiveness. After 30 years of preferential market access, African countries still export a limited range of basic commodities, he points out. "Most of these are sold at lower prices than they were 20 years ago. This is not sustainable. It certainly isn't sustainable development. "

complete article on Africa Renewal...

AGOA seen as mixed blessing for Africa

Nora Bannerman checks the pristine white uniforms made for American pharmacist Walgreens in her factory in the humid heart of the Ghanaian capital Accra. Her Sleek Garments company exports shirts, pants and uniforms under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a 2000 U.S. law that allows nearly 40 African countries to export some goods free of duties and
quotas into the United States.

"AGOA has exposed us to the American buyer," said Bannerman, "but we are still struggling to compete with Chinese prices," she added, referring to tough competition for African textile producers from surging Chinese exports.

U.S. officials say AGOA, which has been partly extended to 2015, is helping African states climb out of poverty by offering trade, not handouts - a key demand of anti-poverty activists. "We believe AGOA has significantly increased Africa's opportunity to send a whole range of products to the United States they had never sent before. We know that because non-oil exports have indeed doubled," said U.S. trade representative for Africa Florizelle Liser.

Still, non-oil exports represent a mere fraction of Africa-U.S. trade. Last year, AGOA imports from Africa to the US climbed to $44.2 billion from $38.1 billion in 2005. But oil products, which generate fewer jobs than other manufacturing activities, accounted for more than 90 percent of this total and among the biggest beneficiaries were oil producers like Nigeria, Angola and Gabon.

In 2006, non-oil products exported under AGOA amounted to $3.2 billion, and Washington wants to increase this.

"We are dead set on expanding non-oil AGOA trade," Liser said. Canned fruits and vegetables, horticulture, cut flowers, processed minerals and metals, nuts and oils were all exports from Africa which the United States sought to expand under AGOA.

Critics of AGOA argue that U.S government subsidies to American farmers keep African growers stuck in poverty, outweighing any real benefits the trade initiative might offer. They say this is especially true in the cotton sector, where West African producers complain U.S. subsidies cost them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lost sales.

Liser said African cotton growers also needed to look at their own efficiency. "People want it to be all about the subsidies," she said. But she said high-yield cotton producers like China, Brazil and Kazakhstan used better seeds, fertilised more often than African farmers and relied on irrigation rather than rain water.

"I tell the Africans ... that if subsidies were magically to disappear, do you really believe that you would be well-placed and ready to benefit from that new system in place, that subsidy-free cotton trading environment?" Liser said. "We have to be honest about it and say that they need to do a lot on their end," she added.

African textile exporters trying to gain a foothold in the U.S. market also face intense Chinese competition. "Competition with China is ferocious. Most buyers compare prices, quality of government support, telecoms, infrastructure to China," said Vanessa Adams of the West Africa Trade Hub, which tries to help companies compete under AGOA.

The biggest problem for many African exporters is arranging bank finance, said Adams. On top of that, they also have to deal with government bureaucracy and often decrepit infrastructure.

Bannerman's factory employs 300 machinists, up from 50 when she started in 2002. One day she hopes to employ more than 700, but although orders are coming in, she says she has yet to make a profit. "We are infants in the industry, it would be over optimistic to be expecting to be making profits now," she said.

She wants AGOA to be extended beyond 2015, allowing African producers time to catch up with China and foreign investors time to set up textile mills in Africa.

Reuters

Monetary union - A must for West Africa

The Director-General of the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM), Dr. Chris Itsede, has called on member states of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) to enter into monetary co-operation under a framework of currency convertibility and macroeconomic policy harmonisation.

Itsede said if that was done it would pave the way for the realisation of the ultimate goal of a single currency and centralised monetary authority. He stated that the rising trend of globalisation strongly underscored the urgent need for WAMZ member states to enter into monetary co-operation.

Itsede mentioned some of the benefits in formalising the use of WAMZ currencies in intra-regional trade transactions as the opportunity to trade in a bigger markets, reduction in transaction costs and the elimination of exchange rate risks among participating countries.

"While the WAMZ project is on course to materialise in December 2009, inthe meantime intra-WAMZ trade can be promoted through the use of local currencies in intra-regional transactions," he said.

Itsede said the latest progress report showed noticeable improvement in macroeconomic convergence in the region, adding that two countries, Nigeria and The Gambia, met all the four primary convergence criteria, while Ghana, Guinea and Sierra Leone met two, one and three of the primary criteria respectively.

Graphic Ghana

The challenges of street vending in South Africa

by Thijs van der Post

Eleven hours a day, seven days a week, Xolani Sinandile (29) of Nyanga, Cape Town, stands on the Main Road intersection near Sea Point, struggling to sell newspapers in order to feed himself and his family. On average, he makes 50 cents per copy, but for Sinandile, and hundreds of thousands of others, this is all that stands between him and abject poverty.

"This isn't life, my brother. But it's all I can do. I see no alternative. At least I'm making an honest living," he says, heaving a sigh when he looks at the colourful Lamborghinis and top-end Mercedes vehicles in the showroom of Ashley's Investment Cars just across the street.

This Cape Town intersection starkly illustrates the contrast between South Africa's rich and poor. Out in the blazing sun works Xolani, breathing exhaust fumes and wondering if he will sell enough papers to make it through the day, while a stone's throw away, in the air-conditioned showroom, well-dressed men are struggling to choose between a new Jaguar or a Maserati.

Xolani is the personification of the most visible part of the informal economy in South Africa. Every day, he and an estimated million other informal traders peddle their goods on the streets of South Africa, trying to eke out a living.

Besides being low on cash, South Africa's street traders have other problems looming. "The biggest problem for street traders is that their only negotiating partner is the local government," says Pat Horn, of Streetnet International, an organisation that protects the rights of hawkers and street traders.

Horn regrets that municipalities seem to long for the days when they were allowed to prevent street trading. Although she is glad things have changed, she now sees a new peril in the outsourcing of governmental responsibilities to other institutions."This approach results in violent conflicts, as there is fierce competition revolving from it," she says.

"The problem with outsourcing responsibilities to particular street-vendor organisations is that the permit system becomes very irregular and corruption thrives. There are different kind of permits for different prices and even fake permits. And as the organisations are racially composed, some people are favoured over others."

Horn fears that with the 2010 Soccer World Cup approaching, things may look even worse for street vendors as "all existing policies are thrown out of the window to clear the streets."

At the Cape Town intersection, Xolani returns from another fruitless stroll past the endless line-up of cars. He leans against a tree to enjoy some of its shade. "Sure, I would like to do something else. But how?" He pulls up his shirt. Streaks of inflamed flesh unfold from just below his neck all the way to his lower body. "I was almost burned alive in a shack. Firemen saved me. One day I hope to be one of them."

Mail and Guardian

Employment in Nigerian textile industry drops by 70%

The deteriorating fortunes of the Nigerian textile industry has been identified as a major reason the country’s labour force witnessed significant depletion in the last ten years.

Managing Director of Ecobank Nigeria, Mr. Offiong Ambah, said the industry has witnessed a decrease in employment levels by 70 percent since 1996. He said over 70 textile mills have been shut out of business in the last ten years, causing over 150,000 employees to lose their jobs. Ambah said the market share for local textile mills is only about 25 percent and may decline further due to cheaper imports.

The comments were made at the official commissioning of Femro 3 Textile Plant in Lagos, built with funding assistance from Ecobank Nigeria. Ambah said big names in the textile industry like Arewa Textiles, which is under receivership; Afprint, Zamfara Textiles and Fintex, among others, have all closed because of the losses emanating from foreign dominance, among other reasons.

On efforts to arrest this phenomenal degradation of the textile industry, Ambah said, "It was to stem the tide of foreign dominance in our textile industry that the government banned the importation of 41 household products, including that of fabrics in January, 2004."

But he noted that the ban had little or no effect, as cheaper contraband goods continued to flood the Nigerian market from Asian countries.

The Independent (Nigeria)

Definition of 'investor' : a white man with a briefcase

by Binyavanga Wainaina

In many unmeasured ways, Nairobi services the business people, agencies and governments of eight countries : Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, Congo, Somalia and Ethiopia.

Traders come in from all over, looking for spare parts and socks; for new Mercedes-Benzes and toothpicks; for bales of second-hand clothes and banking services; for cement; for cost-effective private schooling; for seedlings and freelance website designers. The most vibrant parts of the
city surround the bus ranks that service this massive market.

Of course, our world being what it is, there is no service to make the lives of these poor travellers easier. Kenyan police love to harass black African foreigners because they are more afraid of authority figures than anybody and they will cough up whatever is asked. There is no office set up by the city council to support trade and traders anywhere near bustling Tom Mboya Street - no place to complain, no forum to discuss how to make this business grow.

Instead, there are askaris with clubs. The management plan for the billions of shillings that flow into the city every month are clubs and tear gas and the efficient collection of fines and fees.

These neighbouring countries may be Kenya’s largest source of income, but then we must consider definitions. Take “investor”. An investor is a white man with a briefcase; a brown man with a briefcase is here to “bribe”; a black man with a briefcase is an “illegal immigrant.”

There are signs, though that the thinking is slowly changing. A Senegalese company that makes innovative customs software has just won a huge contract for Kenya. The donors were shocked. Who thought technology could be bought and sold within the continent?

Now. The blunt truth of all of this is that there is little meaningful investment that can come from a white man with a briefcase. This is because he lives in a different solar system. What he refers to as a low-cost life for him and his family is beyond the means of Kenya to provide.

There is a lovely story that circulates in Nairobi about the coffee husk project, in which beautiful and environmentally friendly and well-funded coal was produced by men in briefcases for the African market. This was meant to stop people burning charcoal. Problem was, the costs were high : big homes with 24-hour security, broadband Internet, private schooling at the international school and so on had to be provided by the funding.

What is not said is that brown men with briefcases are readily available, downloaded from planes from Mumbai with $50,000 and the ability to live on a dollar a day while setting up the Kenya Coffee Husk Charcoal Company, which will undercut the charcoal dealing mafias.

It is for this reason that I am refreshed by the idea that the Chinese government built a mall as part of their trade mission in Nairobi. That they talk about doing business - and mean it. For when you hear our EU diplomat types talk, you would think all they do is donate and provide “partnership support.” We are not a market for them, we are a sort of kindergarten that needs a firm hand and bright, bold colors.

A raft of articles has come from concerned people in the West who talk about how China and India are exploiting Africa. But to me it seems that their (China and India) motives are far more upfront, transparent and sincere than the patronising baby talk that issues from our "partners" with briefcases who want to start fail-safe businesses by getting pity grants.

I recently met somebody who trains Africans in “income generating activities.” She has never run a successful business. She took a course in development somewhere in Europe. She was flying business class to Amsterdam.

It’s a good gig, if you can get it.

Mail and Guardian

Uganda : AGOA export volumes hard to attain

Uganda's exports to the US under the African Growth Opportunities Act (AGOA) have declined by about a half, according to the annual report submitted to the US Congress report recently.

The report shows that Uganda's 2006 exports under AGOA and its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) provisions were valued at just $2.5 million (11 per cent of total Ugandan exports to the US), down from $4.9 million in 2005. This is compared to Kenya's $273 million, 77 per cent of the country's total exports to the US in 2006.

The State Minister for Investment, Semakula Kiwanuka, said, "The AGOA market requires large quantities of supply at a consistent level, which we still do not have the capacity to meet." He said, for example, more than 6,000 products are eligible for export to the AGOA market but Uganda cannot even meet the required product quantities for just clothes and textiles.

The embattled Tristar Apparels factory, which closed a few months ago, was for several years Uganda's only flag bearer on the AGOA market. However, new entrant, Phoenix Logistics recently started exporting apparel. A local flower firm has also started exporting cut flowers.

Semakula said Tristar failed to meet the demand because it depended on imported cotton because of limited local supply and lack of organised products for other products for export.

Generally, US imports from AGOA countries totalled $44.2 billion in 2006, up by 16 per cent over 2005, largely due to more oil exports from Nigeria and Angola. The report indicates that non-oil AGOA trade also increased by seven per cent to $3.2 billion - rebounding from a decline of 16 per cent in 2005 - as several sectors (footwear, fruits, nuts, prepared vegetables and cut flowers) experienced increases.

"Trade is the best tool we have to alleviate poverty and spur economic development, and AGOA is a key element in America's effort," said US Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab.

The Monitor

Shoemakers, Liberia

The sign asks, "Which people need investment attention?"

At the bottom it reads, "Please promote the shoemakers."

Liberia

Don't bank on foreigners for development, Obasanjo tells Africa

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo has underscored the importance of Africans disabusing themselves of the mistaken belief that the continent can develop only if foreigners flock in with investments.

Speaking during a visit to Tanzania, he blamed the belief on the excessive brainwashing of Africans, which he said had wreaked havoc on the people`s mindsets. He appealed to African nations to sincerely believe that the continent has most of the resources and inputs it needs to develop and prosper.

Foreigners usually decide to invest in particular countries in Africa after being encouraged by the satisfaction of local investors, Obasanjo pointed out, noting that where there is dissatisfaction or resentment they often keep a safe distance. He called on African governments to help by affording the private sector supportive terms and conditions so that it can provide better services and encourage foreign investors to flow in.

"We are here to share experiences with our brothers and sisters in Tanzania to ensure that the economy of this country moves forward," said Obasanjo.

He referred to a country's local investors as the engine of the respective country's development, adding that they must be assured of favourable work conditions so that they can become more productive and efficient.

IPP Media

EU official accused of attempting to divide southern Africa over EPAs

A top European Union official has been seeking to create divisions between South Africa and its neighbours in talks aimed at establishing a free trade deal, African diplomats have alleged.

Karl Friedrich Falkenberg, the deputy-director general for trade at the European Commission, is said to have recommended that measures against firms from South Africa should be contemplated by governments from its bordering countries. The recommendation was made in June during talks in Walvis Bay, Namibia between the EU and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

During these negotiations, some SADC governments voiced concerns that their exports to South Africa are likely to be adversely affected if an EU strategy for opening the South African market to greater imports from Europe succeeds.

The EU is hoping to sign Economic Partnership Agreement with eight SADC countries- Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania and South Africa- by the end of this year. EU officials hope that the EPA will lead to European firms having greater access to South Africa than they have under the free trade agreement concluded between the EU and South Africa in 1999. The EU side has gone so far as to advocate that tariffs levied by South Africa on a wide range of goods should be removed.

An African diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, described Falkenberg's suggestion that neighbouring countries should place barriers on South African firms as "shocking", as it runs counter to the European Commission's stated desire of using the EPA to foster closer economic and political ties among the countries of southern Africa.

The diplomat was also scathing about threats made by the EU executive to impose heavy tariffs on imports from southern Africa if their governments do not sign an EPA by Dec. 31. "I don't think people in southern Africa appreciate being bullied," the diplomat said. "We've had all of that rubbish for far too long." African goods entering the EU's market currently benefit from a preferential regime, which has been granted a waiver from World Trade Organisation rules. That waiver is due to expire Jan. 1 2008.

"This is a load of nonsense," an European Commission spokesman on trade said in response to the allegations of double dealing. "We are entirely committed to integration. This is the bedrock of our approach. Regional integration and local integration underpin all dimensions of the EPAs."

Paul Goodison from the European Research Office, which monitors trade relations between the EU and Africa, said: "The main market the European Union wants access to is the South African market. The other markets are insignificant, as far as the EU is concerned." He said the EU's strategy of focusing on targeted markets could have "profound implications" for South Africa.

In a paper published in April, the Commission said it would be even tougher than it has been to date in insisting that barriers faced by European firms wishing to operate in lucrative markets should be removed. In particular, the Commission pledged to make greater use of international dispute settlements, pointing out that this approach had already paid dividends in recent years. The EU executive had succeeded in challenging a value added tax system in Colombia designed to protect local car manufacturers against imports and a Mexican law on diesel emissions that would have prevented European cars being sold in Mexico.

Goodison added that fears are being expressed in South Africa that the EU may mount a challenge to business schemes designed to help entrepreneurs from the black majority, by arguing that they discriminate against European firms. A South African trade official agreed that the Commission is seeking to drive a wedge between his country and its neighbours.

"The reason is simple," the official said. "With the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries, the EU is mostly talking to developing countries. South Africa is a developing country but in some areas is not a developing country."

Wallie Roux, a Namibian trade analyst recently suspended from the beef exporting firm Meatco for criticising the EU's tactics in the EPA talks, argued that the Commission is wrong to insist that an agreement should be wider in scope than trade in goods.

The Commission has been adamant that EPAs must cover such matters as foreign investment, government procurement and competition, even though poor countries had successfully lobbied for the removal of these items from the Doha trade talks, a separate round of negotiations held under the aegis of the WTO.

Southern African countries are not sufficiently prepared to sign a comprehensive EPA by the 31 December deadline, Roux contended. "It's a Catch 22 situation," he said. "The countries in Southern Africa only want to concentrate on trade in goods, because that's what are covered by the WTO waiver. The EU, on the other hand, is still keeping the 'new generation' issues on the table. If the EU doesn't soften its stance, there will be no agreement by the end of this year."

Bilaterals

Malaysia-Africa palm oil trade fair to be held in South Africa

Recognising the growing importance of markets in the African continent, with its population of 720 million, Malaysia is taking the initiative to hold the first Malaysia-Africa Palm Oil Trade Fair & Seminar (MA-POTS) in Johannesburg, South Africa, from July 15 to 17.

Themed "Opportunities for Malaysia-Africa Partnership for Food, Fuel and Feed Industries," MA-POTS is being organised by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) in efforts to enhance trade and build new links with buyers and traders of Malaysian palm oil in the continent.

MPOC will use the fair as a platform to boost the Malaysian palm oil profile and create awareness of the commodity's nutritional benefits and advantages for the food, fuel and feed industries in South Africa.

MA-POTS will be held in conjunction with Africa's Big Seven, the continent's leading food industry show, and Halal World 2007, an event supported and endorsed by the South African National Halal Authority (SANHA). Africa's Big Seven is expected to attract exhibitors from more than 57 countries.

In recent years, the event has developed a formidable reputation internationally as a platform that delivers business results and has succeeded in bridging the gap between buyers and sellers. A line-up of speakers has been drawn up for MA-POTS, who will touch on topics like the supply and demand and transportation challenges for oils and fats.

Malaysia, one of three suppliers of palm oil to Africa, holds nearly 80 percent of the market share and this was reflected last year when Malaysia's exports jumped 54.2 percent to 1.16 million tonnes from 751,451 tonnes in 2005. Last year, palm oil imports accounted for 1.49 million tonnes of Africa's oils and fats intake of 1.96 million tonnes.

MA-POTS is the third held this year, the first being in Pakistan and the second in Egypt.

The Big Seven comprise the Pan Africa Retail Trade Exhibiton, the Meat Industry Fair (IFMA), Retail Solutions Africa, Agri-Food, InterBake Africa, FoodTech Africa and Stationery Housewares Africa.

Bernama

Hyper-inflation causes resort to barter in Zimbabwe

Zimbabweans are switching to barter, payment in kind and the use of foreign currencies, such as the rand, instead of the local dollar to survive hyperinflation and the accelerating economic meltdown.

Zimbabwe's currency is still pegged officially at Z$250 to one US dollar; recently the informal market price was about Z$130 000 to US$1, although two weeks before that it had crashed to Z$400 000 against the US dollar. In January, US$1 was being traded for Z$3,000.

The country's inflation rate, the highest in the world, is officially at more than 3,700%, although independent economists believe the real rate of inflation is about 20,000% and could reach 1,5-million percent by the end of the year.

Purses and wallets have become redundant; Zimbabweans use shopping bags, suitcases, sacks and other large containers to carry cash. Bank tellers are hidden from view by huge piles of the increasingly worthless currency as long queues wait to withdraw as much as they can to try to beat the galloping inflation that has crippled the country, once a regional economic powerhouse.

Conversations in banking halls are drowned out by the constant drone of money-counting machines -- importing the machines is one of the few remaining growth industries, but this mini-boom could end, because Zimbabweans are increasingly forced to resort to bartering, payment in kind and using a foreign currencies.

"We pay for soya beans and can swop one ton for a drum of fuel," said a recent advert in the state-sponsored newspaper, The Herald; bartering is becoming commonplace as individuals, traders and markets seek an alternative method of determining value.

Thomsen Siziba, a newly resettled farmer in the prime farming area of Chegutu, Mashonaland West Province, said farm workers no longer wanted to be paid in cash, but rather in kind. "The gazetted [monthly] wages for farm workers are about $70,000, which basically is not enough to buy two litres of cooking oil, which costs $350,000, or a bar of soap, which costs $270,000, or a bottle of beer,which costs $75,000," he said.

Siziba said farm workers knew the economy was collapsing and "a lot of them no longer want long-term contracts, which would tie them to me; the farm workers say they would rather work for food and clothing handouts instead of money, which they say is now worthless."

A tenant in Belvedere, an upmarket suburb of Harare, said his landlord had given him notice that from July his rent should not be paid in Zimbabwean dollars, but in fuel, which currently sells for about Z$220 000 a litre. His monthly rent will cost him 80 litres of petrol, or Z$17,6-million.

Analysts said the growing use of the South African rand or US dollar for day-to-day trading was a watershed in Zimbabwe's economic malaise.

Mail and Guardian

Are Bono & Western Celebrities Co. neo-colonialist in their portrayal of Africa?

by William Easterly*

Just when it seemed that Western images of Africa could not get any weirder, the July 2007 special Africa issue of Vanity Fair was published, complete with a feature article on "Madonna's Malawi." At the same time, the memoirs of an African child soldier are on sale at your local Starbucks, and celebrity activist Bob Geldof is touring Africa yet again, followed by TV cameras, to document that "War, Famine, Plague & Death are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and these days they're riding hard through the back roads of Africa."

It's a dark and scary picture of a helpless, backward continent that's being offered up... But in fact, the real Africa is quite a bit different. And the problem with all this Western stereotyping is that it manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of some current victories, fueling support for patronizing Western policies designed to rescue the allegedly helpless African people while often discouraging those policies that might actually help.

Let's begin with those rampaging Four Horsemen. Do they really explain Africa today? What percentage of the African population would you say dies in war every year? What share of male children, age 10 to 17, are child soldiers? How many Africans are afflicted by famine or died of AIDS last year or are living as refugees?

In each case, the answer is one-half of 1% of the population or less. In some cases it's much less... That doesn't lessen the tragedy, of course, of those who are such victims, and maybe there are things the West can do to help them. But the typical African is a long way from being a starving, AIDS-stricken refugee at the mercy of child soldiers. The reality is that many more Africans need latrines than need Western peacekeepers — but that doesn't play so well on TV.

Further distortions of Africa emanate from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's star-studded Africa Progress Panel (which includes the ubiquitous Geldof). The panel laments in its 2007 news release that Africa remains "far short" of its goal of making "substantial inroads into poverty reduction." But this doesn't quite square with the sub-Saharan Africa that in 2006 registered its third straight year of good GDP growth — about 6%, well above historic averages for either today's rich countries or all developing countries. Growth of living standards in the last five years is the highest in Africa's history.

The real Africa also has seen cellphone and Internet use double every year for the last seven years. Foreign private capital inflows into Africa hit $38 billion in 2006 — more than foreign aid. Africans are saving a higher percentage of their incomes than Americans are (so much for the "poverty trap" of being "too poor to save" endlessly repeated in aid reports). I agree that it's too soon to conclude that Africa is on a stable growth track, but why not celebrate what Africans have already achieved?

Instead, the international development establishment is rigging the game to make Africa ... look even worse than it really is. ...

Why do aid organizations and their celebrity backers want to make African successes look like failures? One can only speculate, but it certainly helps aid agencies get more publicity and more money if problems seem greater than they are. As for the stars — well, could Africa be saving celebrity careers more than celebrities are saving Africa?

In truth, Africans are and will be escaping poverty the same way everybody else did : through the efforts of resourceful entrepreneurs, democratic reformers and ordinary citizens at home, not through PR extravaganzas of ill-informed outsiders.

the real Africa needs increased trade from the West more than it needs more aid handouts. A respected Ugandan journalist, Andrew Mwenda, made this point at a recent African conference..: "What man or nation has ever become rich by holding out a begging bowl?" asked
Mwenda.

Perhaps Bono was grouchy because his celebrity-laden "Red" campaign to promote Western brands to finance begging bowls for Africa has spent $100 million on marketing and generated sales of only $18 million, according to a recent report. But the fact remains that the West shows a lot more interest in begging bowls than in, say, letting African cotton growers compete fairly in Western markets (see the recent collapse of world trade talks).

Today, as I sip my Rwandan gourmet coffee and wear my Nigerian shirt here in New York, and as European men eat fresh Ghanaian pineapple for breakfast and bring Kenyan flowers home to their wives, I wonder what it will take for Western consumers to learn even more about the products of self-sufficient, hardworking, dignified Africans. Perhaps they should spend less time consuming Africa disaster stereotypes from television and Vanity Fair.

*William Easterly is a professor of economics at New York University, Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of "The White Man's Burden : How the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and so Little Good."

LA Times

Examining Nepad's conceptual shortcomings

by J. Harrison Kinyanjui*

At a meeting of African heads of state in Lusaka, Zambia, on July 7, 2001, Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade was co-opted into the Nepad bandwagon, to join Nigeria's former president Olusegun Obasanjo, South Africa's Thabo Mbeki and Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika in steering the new initiative. He thus became an insider, and a key proponent of Nepad.

Six years later and unfazed, Wade announced his unofficial disaffiliation from Nepad, attributing his disillusionment to its embarrassingly dismal performance against a backdrop of what he termed its monumental funding. Was that pronouncement from such a knowledgeable source obliquely spelling the end of Nepad?

NEPAD'S abortion was imminent, and the writing had been on the wall far much longer than the timing of Wade's inauspicious announcement. In its expression, Nepad exemplified an elitist approach to African issues that sought to integrate Africa into the Western hemisphere's economic and political scheme of things.

Fatally, it operated on a parallel agenda with the African Union (AU). The AU may have in fact been the perfect forum to launch Nepad and articulate its objectives as an African initiative. Yet by and large, its proponents failed to sell the idea to individual African countries via that forum, even though at various African heads of state summits it had been mentioned as a vehicle to recast Africa's image.

If indeed it was a homegrown concept, why did African heads of state give Nepad a cold shoulder?

In Nepad, African governments were being asked to overhaul overnight the economic and political paradigms that had crystallised after years of oppression and skewed economic policies deliberately perpetrated by Western institutions against them, precipitating the abject poverty in Africa that pains every rational human being.

Nepad's other shortcoming was that it was framed within the old belligerent and patronising relationships of 'us against them,' and therefore talk of 'new' partnerships between 'developed' G8 countries and 'underdeveloped' African nations was a poor smokescreen. It failed to demonstrate the reality of the touted partnerships and the exit plan out of the 'donor-beggar' relationship.

Its exponents' failure to integrate Nepad into the African Union proved costly, and this externalisation made it appear as a masked instrument of neo-colonialism. Wade and company had first to 'defend' its viability to the G8 members at their meeting in Genoa, Italy, on July 20, 2001. Even at that stage, Nepad's expressed aims were too theoretical, overly ambitious, or altogether too difficult to achieve with limited financial resources.

Worse, even at face value, its objects assumed African nations functioned in a vacuum, as though their destiny and its crafting were exclusively in the hands of African governments. Overnight, the economic dictators of the West had been transformed by Nepad into eager 'partners' of development, ignoring the realities of aid and conditional lending within the strangling international trade and financial systems already functional in all African countries.

An insidious failure of Nepad stems from the paternalistic attitude that its proponents assumed at the outset, led by South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, over African nations that were not founder members of Nepad. In reality, no African leader has moral authority to spell out to another leader 'peer review' issues for their nation to qualify for an assessment on Nepad's score sheet. This attitude served to alienate rather than attract more nations into Nepad's conceptual fold.

Lacking any form of legal, political, or governmental authority, Nepad's decisions could not bind any African government, no matter how glamorous the manner of these decisions. Supranational decisions require a cross-national forum such as the AU, which Nepad overlooked.

It can be speculated that Nepad's take-off was sabotaged by Tony Blair's Commission on Africa, with glitzy media hype in Western capitals touting superficial solutions to African problems. Were Nepad's technocrats blind to these manoeuvres aiming at overshadowing and eclipsing Nepad? Why did they not speak vehemently against the propping up of the Commission on Africa when Nepad existed as a vehicle to propound the same issues the Commission sought to publicise and achieve?

If Nepad's 'peer review' mechanism was meant to create a new iconic bond between African nations where none existed then it was a myopic intention and Nepad's death was inevitable.

*J. Harrison Kinyanjui is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya*

The East African

East African budgets show lower donor dependency, more regional integration steps

Two of three East African governments are moving to cut budget and project support from the donor community. Despite the decreasing donor dependence, the three governments are increasing their spend because of demands in key sectors of their respective economies.

"We can't keep relying on donor funding indefinitely. There is an aspect of donor fatigue and our own self respect," said former Ugandan finance minister (late 1980s), Mr. Joash Mayanja Nkangi after the presentation of Uganda's budget.

Kenya is ahead of Uganda and Tanzania in this respect given that it will spend Ksh693.5 billion ($10 billion), up by 20% from last year and will fund its 2007/08 budget up to an impressive 95%.

Uganda, projected to spend Ush5,025 billion ($3 billion) up from Ush3,190 billion ($2 billion), slashed its reliance on donor support from 42% in the last financial year to 38.7%.

Ironically, while the Tanzanian 2006/07 budget was 39% donor funded, the 2007/08 budget reveals a 3% upward surge in budget support from foreign sources.

In the true spirit of regional integration, the three governments also resolved to ban use of plastic polythene bags and containers, essentially killing an industry that had over the many years extensively grown to cater for the region's packaging needs. Effective July 1, 2007, importation and production of plastic bags of less than 30 microns will be banned while a 120% excise duty has been imposed on the rest. The decision, which was arrived at by the three EAC finance ministers, was based on the serious environmental concerns and the difficulties in the disposal of polythene bags.

Another gesture that shows the private sector is moving ahead of the public sector in pressing for regional integration is the Kenyan proposal where companies from Uganda and Tanzania can list on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) and enjoy tax advantages similar to those of local companies.

To harmonise foreign policy among East African Community member states, Uganda is revising her visa fees to match those charged by the other partner states. Accordingly, Uganda will charge US$50 for a single entry visa, $100 for six months and $200 for 12 months.

Business Week

Nigerian authorities seize counterfeit products

Nigeria's National Agency for Foods, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has swooped on dealers of counterfeit products at the Balogun Business Association market at its extension in the International Trade Fair Complex, Ojo, Lagos. The traders lost an estimated half a billion naira ($4 million) worth of goods to the agency when its enforcement team stormed the market unexpectedly.

By the time NAFDAC operatives left the market, a staggering consignment of various unregistered cosmetic products from agents and manufacturers said to be based in China had emerged, forming a large heap.

A popular beauty product, Neutrotone Cream (White Moon) made almost 50 percent of the total seizure. The original product has a NAFDAC accreditation number while the similarly packaged copy, thought to originate in China, is not registered with the regulatory body.

The market which is described as the hotbed of cosmetic product faking. A NAFDAC official said only such moves would protect consumers from exposure to harmful products as well as protect the manufacturers, importers, dealers and other lawful persons from the effects of the fakers' fraud.

Daily Sun

West African economic bloc faces bleak outlook in 2007

Lacklustre growth, ballooning petroleum imports, cotton sales hit by Western subsidies and a lingering political crisis in the region's former star economy have crippled a west African economic bloc. The eight-nation West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), home to some 80 million inhabitants, is set to record a relatively poor growth rate this year, the head of the region's central bank said in early July.

"The year 2007 could also be marked by a relatively feeble growth of four percent," said Damo Justin Barro, the acting governor of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO). The bank chief however said inflation across the region had been contained at an average of 2.3 percent last year against 4.3 percent in 2005. The growth rate last year was a mere 3.2 percent, two percentage points lower than the average for sub-Saharan Africa, and clearly insufficient to pull out the area from endemic poverty.

The UEMOA is a customs and monetary union between some of the members of the larger Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional grouping. It comprises Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Togo and Senegal.

The poor growth rate was blamed to a large degree on falling agricultural revenues, especially for cotton, which is a major cash crop in the region. Western natinss provide huge subsidies for their cotton producers, thereby affecting exports from West Africa. Some of the bloc's members
argue that the effect of international debt waivers are offset by such subsidies.

The grouping has also felt the backlash of a long-drawn political crisis in Ivory Coast, which is still the region's economic powerhouse and the world's top cocoa producer despite having been split in half since a failed uprising in September 2002. The country's main port Abidjan, which was a regional hub and serviced many of the landlocked countries, has experienced a sharp fall in traffic. But it is still far ahead in terms of volumes than its nearest rival Dakar. This has driven up costs of goods in the hinterland as they now have to be transported along longer distances over land.

The BCEAO in a new report warned that the current oil shock had also driven up the prices of oil exports except for the region's sole producer, Ivory Coast. The oil import bill comprised 32 percent of the sum of total imports last year against 19 percent in 2002, it said. It said the sagging performance of the region's key sectors "showed up the fragility of the economic structures and their vulnerability to external shocks."

Last year, only two nations in the grouping registered an improved growth rate. Benin's economy grew 3.6 percent against 2.9 percent the previous year, while Togo's performance rose to 1.5 percent from 0.8 percent. Growth in Ivory Coast stagnated at 1.8 percent and fell in other
countries, notably to 3.1 percent in Senegal from 5.5 percent in the previous year and Niger, where the growth rate halved year-on-year to 3.5 percent.

Meanwhile, Western subsidies for cotton growers and chemical producers hit local exports badly. Cotton is among the main revenue earners for Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Togo.

The bank forecast that the major driver of the region's economies this year would be the agriculture sector and underlined the importance of "revamping the sectors currently in crisis."

It said reforms were equally necessary to improve some key sectors such as Senegal's chemicals industry. Senegal is a major producer of nitrogen and fertilisers. Chemical Industries of Senegal, one ofe thcountry's major employers, accumulated a debt of 200 billion CFA francs (304 million euros, 413 million dollars) at the end of 2006.

AfricAsia

Africa must welcome growing China ties with caution

by Nyankor Matthew*

Let me begin by saying that I am glad china is beginning to look at Africa as a business partner rather than a charity case, as has being the pattern of developed nations, the World Bank, the IMF and aid organizations for years.

But, if the past is any indication of the future, I’ll reserve my excitement over China’s new role in Africa until I start to see some real and beneficial economic progress and economic independence. History has shown us that Africa’s business relationship with developed nations rarely benefits Africa and its people.

Therefore I urge our leaders to approach this new relationship with caution, and to create sound policies to take advantage of the opportunities presented by China and other foreign investors. Let us not get so carried away by the fanfare and forget that the Chinese are capitalists with enough clout to influence African countries' domestic politics in a very significant way.

China has made great strides in terms of trade with Africa. According to the IMF, in 1999 the value of trade between China and Africa was $2 billion, which grew to $29.6 billion in 2004, and is expected to top $50 billion in 2007. In some countries, China has set up a near-monopoly in trade, importing 81% of Sudan’s global oil exports and 72.5% of Congo’s global exports in metals. As the Chinese economy continues grows, so will its appetite to consume more and more commodities, especially oil; and China has no other place to take advantage of its growing needs than on the Continent of Africa.

But China’s presence on the Continent is not all smiles and pat on the back. In countries such as Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Ethiopia, where China has a strong market presence, local merchants have accused the Chinese of “dumping” their people and cheap products in these countries, thus stifling local businesses and manufacturing. Many employees are angry unsafe working conditions in Chinese owned mines and factories.

There are those who say well, it’s all about free trade, so African businesses and merchants must learn to compete and stop complaining. I disagree. One can only compete well if one has equal access to equal opportunity.

In the case of many African nations that are trying to get on their feet economically, it’s going to be impossible to compete and flourish with an economic giant such as China monopolizing major industries, dominating the local economies, and eventually creating a destructive environment where financial capital will not be reinvested to strengthen local economies. Instead Chinese nationals, if allowed, will do exactly what’s been done by Lebanese merchants in many parts of Africa; invest their money back into their native economies. If the U.S. is currently struggling to compete with China in terms of trade, then imagine what china and its merchants will do to small African companies and merchants. Africans will have no chance to even come close to competing because most of our nations have weak labor laws/standards, or no laws that protect the interest of local businesses and companies.

It’s no secret that the Chinese have questionable business and labor practices. With this new so called business partnership with Africa, African labor ministries and legislatures/parliaments need to start creating labor laws to ensure that China and its merchants don’t kill off local businesses. African nations can not allow themselves to always be in a subservient and reactive mode when it comes to trade with other nations. We need to be aggressive in creating and implementing labor laws that will protect our entrepreneurs, and local companies.

Our leaders need to ensure that African firms can own a significant share of Chinese-funded projects or other major projects spearheaded by foreigners. I would go as far as even suggest that African countries not allow more than 50% of ventures to be Chinese-owned, or owned by other foreign nationals. The result is that indigenous business interests retain control and have real leverage against foreign interests or control. Such a strategy will allow emerging entrepreneurs a chance at growing their businesses and prospering. Such an arrangement or strategy will allow for skills transfer to lower level workers and managers that will be capable of running industries once some of these foreigners depart.

This new relationship with china must not be a one way relationship where African nations get screwed in the end, and are left to beg for crumbs from the same nations that screwed them in the beginning. This new relationship must be one that will benefit all nations involved.

Our leaders must ensure that the investment being made by China adds value to the lives of our people, and bring about true economic independence. China’s presence in Africa should not be the beginning of another wave of disguised exploitation that will be led by the Chinese. African countries have a history of signing incredibly negative deals that end up benefiting foreign nations, instead of the African People.

Yes, debt cancellation and building sports stadium and roads, is a wonderful gesture from China, but let us not allow a few millions being thrown around to cloud our judgment. The People’s Republic of China is not a humanitarian organization; it is a nation on a quest to gain power, and its share of Africa’s wealth and resources. Let us not be fooled, China isn’t giving us free money or free labor. Whether you believe it or not, China will get its return on its investment ten fold, if our leaders fall prey to greed.

*Nyankorm@gmail.com

Front Page Africa

West losing sleep over growing Africa-China ties

by Ofwono Opondo

Our former European colonial benefactors, oppressors and exploiters for centuries-Britain, Belgium and France have expressed fears that the recent surge in Sino-African interaction, especially China's economic interests, will consolidate bad governance in Africa.

According to this school of thought, China is totalitarian, with the worst human rights record, and is coming to fund and protect African dictators who were just beginning to come under closer western watch to respect the supposedly "international standards." Yet most former and current world dictators and corrupt elites were nurtured and continue to be supported by the western corrupt system!

Through their politicians, scholars and journalists, Belgium, whose King Leopold deceitfully, forcefully and brutally seized and owned the whole of the Congo as a personal estate, recently published a rather superficial academic report 'warning' Africa not to be too optimistic about China's drive into this last virgin land of capitalism.

China is being portrayed as a new colonial power, although it has not expressed interest in signing military pacts, or in forceful, deceitful grabbing of land and other resources, or unfair trade sanctioned by government as Europeans did from the 15th century including the slave trade, and continued to-date through proxy wars and the imposition of cultural norms.

Having realised that their imperial frontiers are ever receding, the Europeans are shedding crocodile tears in a futile hope that Africans, who for long were considered just recently landed from tree branches, are less intelligent.

Africa and Asia having buried formal colonialism, western countries now fear that their interests in political hegemony, economic exploitation through the control of our natural resources and lopsided trade are being dismantled and are the ones crowing the "China threat" rhetoric. The warning bells from Europe are false on many accounts. Firstly, because China has no tradition of either colonialism or imperialism, and it is getting late for any power to wear a hat of political domination over others.

The Europeans, trying to take advantage of old colonial prejudices and the general lack of information about current world affairs in Africa, have gone full throttle in their mischievous schemes.

At the inauguration of the recent Sino-Africa summit, Chinese President Hu Jintao announced eight categories of cooperation over the next three years. Hu announced doubling assistance to Africa from the 2006 level; providing $3b of preferential loans and $2b of preferential buyer's credits to Africa. He also promised to set up a China-Africa development fund worth $5b to encourage Chinese companies to invest in Africa.

An international conference centre for the African Union in Addis Ababa to help deepen Africa's integration which was promised at the time of the summit is already underway! China undertook to cancel debt in all interest-free government loans that matured at the end of 2005, owed by heavily indebted countries with diplomatic relations with China. It promised to further open its market from 190 to 440 export items receiving zero-tariff treatment from the least developed African countries having diplomatic relations with China. It also promised to establish three to five trade and economic zones in Africa in an effort to create specialisation in skills and productivity to enhance competition in the global marketplace.

In addition, China undertook to train 15,000 African professionals, and send 100 agricultural experts in 30 specialised centres, as well as to build 30 hospitals in Africa and give 300 million Yuan for the production of the malaria drug, artemisinin.

Mao's communist state, now operating under a "socialist-market economy" also promised to send 300 Chinese youth volunteers, build 100 rural schools, and increase its government scholarships to African students from 2000 to 4000 annually and most of them in science-based professions.

Naturally, investors, whether European or Chinese, seek profit. Chinese enterprises, while investing more in Africa, enhance our capability to diversify, and to process products for exports. It is our obligation to stay vigilant because the destiny of the world belongs to the well-organised.

New Vision

G4 trade talks reach an impasse

International trade talks are again on the edge of collapse after failure of the G4 (United States, EU, Brazil, and India) to reach agreement at a side meeting in Potsdam, Germany.

Developing countries are increasingly vocal in their refusal to make new commitments for opening their markets without meaningful concessions from industrialized countries on such issues as agricultural subsidies.

As the G4 meeting collapsed, there was a clear split between the U.S. and the EU on the one side and Brazil and India on the other. At the same time, a very wide coalition of developing countries, calling itself the "G90 Plus," issued a critique of both the substance and process of the negotiations.

Given that developed countries seem unwilling to make serious compromises, critics welcomed the unity of developing countries, and noted that a bad result would be worse than no conclusion at all.

Eileen Kwa of the Thailand-based Focus on the Global South, said "I don't think the WTO is going to really affect world trade. I mean world trade has been increasing exponentially in the last few years without any round. So that will continue." The round was not going to be a gain for the majority of developing countries, particularly in Africa, she added.

Major groupings representing a majority of developing countries in the WTO issued a Development Declaration warning that development concerns have been left behind in the rush to agree to a deal in the Doha Round.

According to the Declaration, "it is imperative, if the Round is to be completed, that the concerns and issues that matter to a majority of developing countries are dealt with satisfactorily and that our development interests are truly addressed and promoted."

It added that critical issues for developing countries have been marginalised or left behind as the negotiations proceeded. They warned that WTO members should not be rushed into agreements because "content cannot be sacrificed for timelines" and "it is more important to get the agreements right than meet deadlines."

The Declaration dealt with both the negotiating process and the substance of the negotiations.

allafrica.com

Problems of African trade blocs work against integration

Economic rivalries and a chronic lack of government resources are hobbling Africa's regional trade blocs, holding back business and revealing the obstacles facing ambitious proposals for a United States of Africa.

The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is the second largest of the continent's 14 overlapping blocs, and in many ways its most advanced, analysts say. It has an effective secretariat, regional parliament and court, a peacekeeping force which saw active duty in Sierra Leone and Liberia, and plans for a common passport and currency.

But officials say integration remains a distant prospect.

"If you look at our own timetable for achieving full integration in ECOWAS, we're not there yet," said Ghana's Trade Minister Alan Kyerematen. "We don't have a customs union ... the free movement of goods and services isn't fully operational."

The 1991 Abuja Treaty, which launched plans for African economic integration, envisaged five regional blocs gradually uniting to create a continental free trade area by 2019. Rather than merging, trade blocs in Africa have multiplied to an alphabet soup of schemes -- like SADC, COMESA, and EAC -- each with its own timetable. Many countries belong to several groups, stretching their scant resources and muddling policies.

ECOWAS overlaps with four other blocs, including the smaller and better-integrated UEMOA zone, which has its own institutions and currency. With a proliferation of schemes, three-quarters of African states lack the resources to implement them, according to a 2006 U.N. report.

"Gaddafi's initiative overlaps with all of these ongoing initiatives. It's simply not productive," said Richard Reeve, African analyst at think tank Chatham House in London. "The main obstacles to closer integration are a lack of government capacity and the lack of transport infrastructure."

Despite efforts toward integration, trade between African countries accounts for less than a 10th of their total, the lowest internal trade rate of any region in the world. Over 70 percent of Africa's exports go to the United States and Europe, taking potential wealth elsewhere. Companies complain that heavy customs taxes and poor roads across rugged and often lawless West Africa makes business difficult. Goods can spend months at border crossings, hiking costs for importers -- and corruption worsens the problem.

A 2005 IMF report said it cost $1,500 to import a car from Japan to ECOWAS-member Ivory Coast, but more than three times as much to bring it across Africa from Ethiopia.

"At the moment it is cheaper for us to import from outside the region," said Farroukh Ahmad, head of African cell phone giant MTN in Nigeria. "We need ECOWAS to break down the barriers between its countries ... They should make sure there are no, or limited, customs duties for moving goods throughout the region."

Like other regional blocs, ECOWAS can only move at the pace dictated by its largest member. Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, accounts for over half the bloc's 250 million people, but has blacklisted some imports to foster domestic industries. Neighbouring states have reacted in kind, stalling progress to a free trade zone. Even some products stamped and certified as being produced within the bloc are being taxed.

"Unfortunately, protectionism is still a reality," said Don Ayao Dussey, head of regional regulatory affairs at British American Tobacco. "It wouldn't surprise me if some companies are actively lobbying their governments to maintain protectionism."

Instead of having a single plant to export throughout the region, companies are forced to build two or three, he said.

"A multinational like ours can still survive despite the inefficiency and bureaucracy involved in ECOWAS markets, which increases the cost of doing business. But imagine the impact on small and medium-sized businesses!"

Reuters