WEEKLY SELECTION: African Ministers Endorse Clinton’s Debt Plan

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Mar 20 1999 (IPS) - Ministers from 46 sub-Saharan African nations, concluding an unprecedented meeting here with their US counterparts this week, endorsed initiatives by US President Bill Clinton to reduce their debt burden and promote US trade and investment in their region.

In a joint communique issued at the end of the meeting Mar 18, the 83 ministers said they “warmly welcomed” a six- point plan for expanded debt relief that Clinton announced on the opening day of the three-day conclave.

They also appeared at a press conference to show their support for the Clinton administration’s Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a proposed law to provide trade and investment incentives for African nations which successfully implement controversial Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs).

“Africans support the bill,” Jean Ping, minister of state for foreign affairs of Gabon, told reporters after its Congressional co-sponsors announced that the new speaker of the House of Representatives here, Dennis Hastert, will push for the AGOA’s passage.

The administration hopes the combination of Hastert’s public support for the bill, its introduction Thursday in the Senate by senior Republican lawmaker Richard Lugar, and lobbying by the African ministers this week will impart a new momentum to the effort to secure AGOA’s passage.

“Certainly, the presence of the African ministers made a tremendous difference,” according to Rosa Whitaker, the US Trade Representative’s Africa Assistant, a new post created in part to highlight and promote trade opportunities with the region.

This week’s meeting, the largest gathering of foreign officials hosted by the US government since the founding of the United Nations in 1945, brought African ministers of trade, finance, and foreign affairs here to discuss issues ranging from infrastructure development and trade to conflict resolution and the environment.

Only Sudan, which is accused by Washington of supporting international terrorism, and Somalia, which has no central government, were not invited to send top officials. Besides Clinton, eight US cabinet officials also took part in the proceedings.

The meeting was held almost exactly one year after Clinton became the first sitting US president to visit the continent for an extended period.

His visit launched a “new partnership” with Africa based on “mutual interest and mutual respect,” as assistant secretary of state for Africa, Susan Rice, referred to it Thursday.

The meeting was held in part to show US seriousness about its commitment to the region, trade and investment with which are largely focused on just a few countries, especially South Africa and oil producers Nigeria and Angola.

“To us in Africa, the change from indifference to constructive engagement is a major revolution in US policy towards Africa,” said Tanzania’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Jakaya Kikwete.

Kikwete also praised the AGOA in a final speech on behalf of all the African ministers as a “central factor” of the US- African partnership.

Other ministers suggested Washington’s new-found interest in the region was certain to attract attention from European powers which have traditionally dominated trade with Africa.

“You know,” said one Francophone minister who asked not to be identified, “the French always say, ‘The Americans just talk and talk,’ but, now, I think this meeting makes them more uneasy.”

The talks themselves, according to Rice, were carried out in a “spirit of camaraderie” and were, at times, “incredibly frank, (with) no punches pulled.”

That was evidently particularly with the case regarding discussions on debt and investment.

A 13-page consensus “blueprint” issued at the end of the meeting noted that “many (African) ministers expressed frustration that while they had taken many economic reforms and adopted steps to address corruption and governance issues, foreign investment levels were still very disappointing.”

On debt, the blueprint noted that “some ministers…stated forcefully that existing debt programmes are not adequate to address the problems of a substantial number of African countries.”

Clinton tried to appease those concerns by announcing in his welcoming remarks Tuesday that Washington will urge other leaders of the Group of Seven (G-7) economic powers at their June meeting in Cologne, Germany, to broaden and accelerate debt relief provided under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

HIPC is a International Monetary Fund (IMF)-World Bank initiative to reduce the multilateral debt burden of the world’s poorest countries.

Clinton will also push for bilateral donors at the Paris Club to forgive all of their non-concessional debt and up to 90 percent of their non-concessional debt to HIPC countries, most of which are African, which implement reform programmes.

Altogether, he said, his proposals could result in debt relief totalling some 70 billion dollars.

While applauded publicly by the African ministers, these measures were greeted somewhat less enthusiastically in private, with many of the participants, echoing criticisms by non- governmental groups, like Oxfam International, that they did not go far enough.

“We are appealing for the cancellation of all debts as the only lasting solution to the debt problem,” said Kikwete in his farewell remarks. He also noted problems with IMF “conditionalities” on debt relief which make it more difficult for countries to qualify for relief.

Those conditionalities are also behind the private reservations of some ministers, notably from South Africa and Zimbabwe, about the AGOA.

To obtain maximum benefits under the bill, African countries will be obliged to comply with IMF SAPs and implement related reforms to open their economies to foreign competition and investment.

Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. has introduced an alternative bill, called the Africa HOPE Act, which calls for across-the-board debt relief and unilateral US trade concessions. Arguing that the AGOA is worse for African economies than no bill at all, Jackson has used his bill to split the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and reduce support for it among other Democrats.

By bringing the African ministers to Congress here Thursday, however, the administration and the bill’s congressional sponsors clearly wanted to demonstrate that AGOA has the support of the continent.

“(This) has been a piece of legislation formed in collaboration with the Africans themselves,” said Charles Rangel, a senior CBC leader who has fought hard against Jackson. “They feel it’s their bill as well as ours.”