education, cutting corporate taxes, removing hunger-fighting price supports, and
opening Africa’s natural resources to foreign exploitation," Wallach
continues.
According
to Njokinjoroge Njehu, director of the 50 Years is Enough Network, "if the
African Growth and Opportunity Act becomes law it will take away sub-Saharan
Africa’s right to determine her own destiny. The bill mandates that countries
adhere to more of the same flawed IMF austerity programs in order to qualify for
trade benefits with the United States." "The benefits would flow to a
few U.S. corporations….This is outrageous and unacceptable. Continuing to
bleed Africa of her financial resources when the health, social development, and
future of her people are at great risk is not only hopelessly immoral – it is
also a grievously short-sighted way to treat a trading partner," Njehu
observes.
Clinton
calls for "trade-not-aid" measures that coincidentally and
disproportionately benefit a handful of U.S. investors; as if his
"liberal" administration didn’t impose a textile quota on Kenya in
1994 that led to the collapse of that nation’s textile industry; as if these
trade ideas were new. These policies go back to colonial Africa but you don’t
have to go that far back to find an example. In 1981, former Assistant Secretary
of State for African Affairs, Chester Crocker, gave a speech to the National
Security Committee of the American Legion in Honolulu, laying out the Reagan
administration’s plan for Africa. "We support open market opportunities,
access to key resources, and expanding African and American economies" with
the aim of bringing Africa "into the mainstream of the free-market
economy," he said. Meanwhile, in sub-Sahara Africa, both the number and
percentage of hungry people increased under the austerity programs supported by
the Reagan administration. In 1970, there were 103 million Africans who lacked
basic nutrition (38 percent of the population). By 1991, that number rose to 215
million (43 percent of the population).
The
annual growth of the GDP in that region during the 1980s was one percent but the
population was growing so fast that the per capita GDP actually declined an
average of .8 percent each year from 1980 to 1993. For sure, much of this has to
do with complicated internal African problems; but that doesn’t excuse the
implementation of policies that, for example, force African nations to spend
more on debt repayments than on basic education and health. So it might be
interesting to note that, according to Oxfam, if Africa spent its annual debt
payments on health and education, 21 million lives would be saved by the year
2000. And the United Nations reports that just 12 percent of the $125 billion
that developing nations dole out each year on military expenditures – much of
which goes to American weapons manufacturers – would be enough to provide health
care for all Third World citizens!
But
Clinton is suggesting that Africa needs trade, not aid? Can we afford the aid?
The National Center for Health Statistics reports that Americans spend between
$30 billion and $50 billion each year on diets and related expenditures to
reduce calorie intake. Aren’t you proud of our contribution to "peace"
in Africa?