Economist Background on EU-Africa Summit
As I have said many times and will continue to say, I think the economist is the single best news source for college debaters doing parli or nfa-ld. Here is an excellent article discussing the recent EU-Africa summit. Definitely some good counter-plan arguments here (have EU do the plan!).
For the Europeans are increasingly worried that they are losing both trade and clout on a continent that they used to regard as their own backyard. Over the past five years Europe has watched with a mixture of shock and awe as resource-hungry China has swept across a grateful continent, taking oil and minerals in exchange for anything the Africans want, be it money now, money later, ports or roads.
All this has left Africa’s leaders in the novel position of being able to pick their friends rather than being dictated to by others, be they white development economists or the IMF. And they are enjoying every minute of it. As Shamsudeen Usman, Nigeria’s minister of finance, says: “Nigeria is becoming a beautiful bride. What is happening is the Chinese, the Koreans, everyone is coming around, and if European companies do not wake up, they will see that most of the best businesses are taken. For us, really, whoever gives the best terms, the best conditions, and is willing to come and invest, those are the ones that we’ll do business with.”
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.