African Trade

The Scramble for East Africa

The East African Community has accelerated negotiations with Europe for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). The race is on for negotiators and lobbyists to either let Europe in or keep it out. And so far, influential EPA advocates are in the lead, according to Yash Tandon, former head of the South Centre and critic of African EPAs with Europe. As corporate proponents advance the trade deal, negotiations threaten East African unity at a critical time in its still early development.

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How the World’s Poorest Could Lose Out Again

At its London Summit in April 2009, the Group of 20 (G20) committed to “mitigate the social impact of the crisis to minimize long-lasting damage to global potential” for the most vulnerable citizens who had no hand in creating the global economic crisis. These world leaders — who represent 85 percent of global economic output — promised a total of $1.1 trillion to developing countries, 5 percent of which was committed to low-income countries. More than a year later, at their third post-crisis summit, the G20 continues to foster recovery in high and middle-income countries, but the world’s poorest suffer in economic anonymity. 

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