webmaster
© Copyright DEHAI-Eritrea OnLine, 1993-2010
All rights reserved
From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Mon Nov 29 2010 - 15:50:34 EST
Gaddafi issues warning to EU over African trade
Mon Nov 29, 2010 3:38pm GMT
* Libyan leader hosting EU-African summit
* Says trade terms not beneficial to African countries
* EU's Van Rompuy defends trade policy
TRIPOLI, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi warned the
European Union on Monday that Africa would turn to other trade partners if
the EU kept trying to dictate to the continent how it should develop.
Gaddafi's warning, at an EU-Africa summit attended by senior European
officials, echoed complaints from some other African leaders who say Europe
is trying to make them open their borders to trade but not giving enough in
return.
"Our choice now is to cooperate with our brothers in the European Union but
if that cooperation fails, Africa has other choices," Gaddafi said in
opening remarks at the summit in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
"Africa can look to any other international bloc such as Latin America,
China, India or Russia."
A leaked internal document from the African Union this month showed some
governments on the continent felt that trade deals being offered by the EU
were one-sided.
It said the bloc was asking African countries to liberalise their economies
to comply with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules but was not doing enough
to help them develop their own economies.
"We do not benefit from the WTO and we call for its abolition," Gaddafi
said. "All its interests are in opening our borders for industrial goods and
killing national industries in the Third World, so I call (on everybody) not
to join it."
He also took a swipe at the EU's practice of linking economic assistance to
African countries' respect for human rights and good governance.
"We are not interested in political power. We want economic development," he
said. "What is the meaning of human rights? What is the meaning of good
governance?"
In his own speech to the summit, European Council President Herman Van
Rompuy defended the bloc's policy on Africa.
"In a highly interdependent world economy, there are no easy recipes. But I
am convinced that we can find ways of mutually beneficial cooperation,
notably via the private sector.
"We need to transcend the state dependent economies which have performed so
poorly over decades of development cooperation," Van Rompuy said.
He said in Europe's experience, economic prosperity and good governance were
closely linked.
"The dynamics of prosperity set in where business-friendly policies attract
private investment, where corruption is not tolerated, where the rule of law
is respected and transparency valued," he said. (Reporting by Ali Shuaib and
Salah Sarrar in Tripoli; Writing by Christian Lowe)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----