Talking Points on President Bush’s trip to Africa and on the Bush Administration’s Africa Policy

From Africa Action, [7 July 2003]

President George W. Bush travels to Africa for his first official visit next week. Between July 7 and 12, he will visit the nations of Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria.

The following are talking points covering the key issues in U.S. Africa policy, prepared by Africa Action (202-546 7961).

Trade

Trade is high on the agenda of Bush’s Africa trip. Though the Bush Administration promotes trade as the engine of growth, the reality is that the U.S. continues to pursue trade policies that are antithetical to Africa’s interests.

• The U.S. trade representatives continue to block implementation of the 2001 Doha Declaration on trade, which called for looser patent rules in order to give African countries greater access to essential anti-AIDS drugs.
• U.S. agricultural subsidies undermine Africa’s competitiveness, and cost the continent tens of billions of dollars each year in lost revenues.
• Total trade between the U.S. and sub-Saharan Africa fell dramatically in 2002. Two-way trade was just under $24 billion, down 15% from the previous year. U.S. exports shrank to $6 billion, and U.S. imports fell to $17.9 billion.
• Africa’s share of total world trade stands at 1%, less than half of what it was in 1980.
• The African Growth & Opportunity Act (2000) was intended to offer incentives to African countries to open their markets, but it has brought very little benefit to a few countries, and has not promoted sustainable economic development.

Oil

The Bush Administration is increasingly interested in Africa’s oil resources as an alternative to importing oil from the Middle East.

• In 2002, crude oil accounted for $11 billion, or 61% of U.S. imports from Africa.
• In 2001, sub-Saharan Africa supplied 18% of U.S. oil imports. This is almost as much as Saudi Arabia.
• The National Intelligence Council projects U.S. oil supplies from West Africa will increase to 25% by 2015. This would surpass U.S. oil imports from the entire Persian Gulf.
• Nigeria is the 5th largest supplier of oil to the U.S., accounting for more than one-tenth of total U.S. oil imports.
• Aside from Nigeria, the major oil producers in West Africa include Angola, Congo, Gabon, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.

Aid

The U.S. is the richest country in human history, but it fails to provide its fair share of foreign assistance to support African efforts to promote human development and overcome great social and economic challenges.

• The U.S. currently ranks at the bottom of all donor countries, with only 0.1% of GNP (or about $10 billion) going to foreign aid worldwide. Only 1/100th of 1% of the U.S. budget ($1 billion) is spent on aid to sub-Saharan Africa.
• In March 2002, President Bush announced a new initiative called the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). This would increase U.S. development assistance by 50% over the next 3 years, so that by 2006 an annual increase of $5 billion would be achieved. The President’s budget request for the MCA for FY 2004 (beginning in October 2003) is $1.3 billion.
• MCA funds will go to a list of countries (only a handful in Africa) that meet specific criteria—govern justly, invest in the wellbeing of their people, and encourage economic freedom.
• The MCA will be administered by a new body called the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). This will be a government corporation headed by a Chief Executive Officer, and staffed from the public and private sector. A cabinet-level board will oversee the MCC, and will be chaired by the Secretary of State.
• The MCA proposes a smaller increase in foreign aid than what the U.S. can and should provide. The eligibility criteria defined by the U.S. reinforces an imperialist- style relationship with poor countries, and creates competition between poor countries for a portion of the relatively meager MCA funds.
• The U.S. has consistently failed to commit the level of aid that would be commensurate with its own interests and obligations, or with African countries’ needs.

Military Relations

The U.S.’ military footprint in Africa is growing. The U.S. is increasingly interested in establishing military bases and securing access to ports and airfields in Africa for strategic reasons.

• The U.S. military base in Djibouti, East Africa, has been the main U.S. base for counter-terrorist activities off-shore and in that region since September 2001. Camp Lemonier is home to 1,800 U.S. troops, strategically placed across the Red Sea from the Persian Gulf.
• The U.S. is boosting its troop presence in West Africa, a region that is strategically important because of U.S. oil interests. The tiny island nation of Sao Tome offered to host a U.S. naval base, and Washington is considering that invitation.
• President Bush announced a new $100 million initiative last week, to support the counter-terrorism efforts of East African countries.
• Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY) has written a letter to the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, expressing concern over the expansion of the U.S. military presence in Africa, and asking for an explanation of U.S. plans.

Conflict Resolution & Peacekeeping

The refusal of the U.S. to participate in multilateral peacekeeping efforts undermines African initiatives in this area. It also reveals the lack of U.S. commitment to addressing Africa’s most urgent challenges.

• In Liberia, the political crisis is growing in the aftermath of the breakdown of last month’s cease-fire agreement. The United Nations, European powers, and the people of Liberia are asking the U.S. to intervene to stop the latest violence. Although Bush has called for the removal of President Charles Taylor, the U.S. remains unwilling to take action to ensure a peaceful transition in Liberia, and promote stability in the West Africa region.
• In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the peace process is moving forward, and stakeholders have approved a transitional government that should be inaugurated soon. However, violence and insecurity persist, particularly in eastern Congo, and a strong international commitment, and a larger peacekeeping force, will be required to ensure the peace process can be brought to a successful conclusion.
• In both Liberia and DRC, the U.S. bears a large degree of historical responsibility for the conflicts that have destabilized these countries. During the Cold War, the U.S. provided billions of dollars worth of aid (and arms) to dictators of African countries that were considered geo-strategically important. Liberia, DRC, and Somalia are among the countries that had special Cold War relationships with the U.S. and that fell into violence and political turmoil in the 1990s.
• Despite this historical responsibility, the U.S. adopts a hands off approach to African conflicts, and it refuses to participate in multilateral peacekeeping efforts, committing only bare logistical support in some cases.

Africa’s Debt Crisis

Sub-Saharan Africa’s massive burden of external debt is the largest obstacle to the continent’s development, and to the fight against AIDS.

• African countries owe almost $300 billion to rich creditor governments and to international financial institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• Each year, African governments are required to pay almost $15 billion in debt service to foreign creditors. These debts drain money from health care, education and other essential services, and from the response to the AIDS crisis.
• Most of Africa’s debts are illegitimate and they should be canceled. Many of these debts were incurred by dictators during the Cold War, who did not use the money to benefit Africa’s people. Other loans were given for failed development projects, which also did not benefit Africa’s people.
• The current international debt relief framework, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, has failed to provide a solution to the debt crisis. It was launched by creditors in 1996, and enhanced in 1999, but it has failed to reduce Africa’s debt to a sustainable level. Even the World Bank and IMF have admitted that the HIPC initiative is not working. An independent audit of these two institutions has shown that they can afford to cancel Africa’s debts completely.
• The U.S. is the single largest shareholder at the World Bank and IMF, to whom most of Africa’s debt is owed, and it can use its power to demand a new initiative to address Africa’s debt crisis.
• An inventory should be done of the debts currently being repaid by African countries, to establish what loans are being repaid, and whether the debts are legitimate. The U.S. should support this proposal. Until a solution has been found to the debt crisis, a moratorium should be declared on debt repayments. Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN, is among those who have endorsed this idea.

The AIDS Crisis

The AIDS pandemic is the greatest global threat to human security that exists today. It is taking its most devastating toll in Africa.

• Africa is ground zero of the global AIDS crisis, home to 30 million of the 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS globally. More than 18 million Africans have died of AIDS in the past 20 years, out of 25 million people worldwide.
• The UN and the National Intelligence Council emphasize that the global AIDS crisis is still in its infancy. They project that over 100 million people will be living with HIV/AIDS by 2010.
• In his State of the Union address in January, President Bush announced a new plan to increase funding to fight AIDS in Africa, but this is turning out to be a cruel hoax.
• Bush promised an emergency plan to give $15 billion over 5 years to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. But NO new money has been made available in 2003, and only $450 million is being requested for 2004. The White House has backtracked and said that the money will not just be for Africa and the Caribbean, as the President said, but for the entire world.
• President Bush has requested only $200 million per year for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, which is the most effective vehicle for addressing Africa’s AIDS crisis. The Global Fund is transparent and accountable, it has fewer administrative costs than bilateral (USAID) programs, and it involves key stakeholders in decision-making. But because the U.S. refuses to pay its fair share ($3.5 billion per year), the Global Fund will not have sufficient money to fund a third round of grant proposals in October 2003.
• President Bush has acknowledged that affordable antiretroviral drugs are necessary to fight HIV/AIDS. In order for African countries to have access to these drugs, they must have the capacity to produce them for low cost themselves, or else to import cheaper generic versions from Brazil, India and elsewhere. But the U.S. trade representative is still blocking African access to these drugs, and insisting that pharmaceutical company patents take priority over people’s lives.
• The absence of U.S. leadership remains the greatest obstacle to a successful effort to defeat AIDS in Africa and globally.