posted by Bangirana Albert and Cilas Kemedjio
Jim Redden and Catherine Grant Makokera, in the article “Aid for Trade Vital for Boosting Regional Integration and Development,” discuss the viability of a Tripartite Free Trade Area (T-FTA) that will bring together the three existing regional groupings in Southern and Eastern Africa – the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the East African Community (EAC) and the Community for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) towards a continent-wide free trade area. They say,
“If well harnessed, aid for trade can provide a significant boost to progress on regional integration and increased trade in Africa.”
We at the CIHA Blog would like to highlight the uncritical way this article addresses the aid for trade business project. We argue that such trade is not by itself a response to African problems but is first and foremost a way for local and global capitalist networks of corporations to increase their dividends. Additionally, we question how the “common good” factor in this equation is always assumed, but never articulated. In short, the problem, in Africa, as elsewhere, is not about productivity. It is about “What to do with this productivity?” or where the common fits in this agenda.