Europe-Africa talks end with no trade progress

updated 6:34 p.m. ET Dec. 9, 2007

LISBON, Portugal - The first summit between Europe and Africa in seven years came to an acrimonious end Sunday with leaders squabbling over human rights and no progress on a looming trade pact deadline.

Old divisions surfaced at the two-day summit as leaders swapped accusations over the crises in Zimbabwe and Darfur, and postcolonial tensions deepened over free trade deals.

The World Trade Organization has ruled that the EU’s 30-year-old preferential trade agreement with Africa was unfair to other trading nations and violated international rules. New deals are meant to be finalized by Dec. 31.

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said most African leaders had rejected the European Union’s free trade proposals, known as Economic Partnership Agreements, and wouldn’t discuss them further.

The proposals “aren’t in Africa’s interest,” Wade said in angry comments at a news conference.

Negotiations on the pacts — meant to replace colonial-era trading systems between Europe and its former colonies — have lasted five years and officials had hoped the summit would bring a breakthrough.

The EU is offering African governments unrestricted access to its 27-country market if they in turn grant tariff reductions for European goods — a measure Africans fear will make their less competitive local companies vulnerable.

African Union Commission President Alpha Oumar Konare said the EU had to give up its “colonial approach.”

“The riches of Africa must be paid for at a fair price,” he said.

Tensions over China influence
During previous talks, African governments have said the agreements would do little to boost their access to European markets. They also viewed the conditions as an EU attempt to meddle in African affairs.

Friction between the continents comes as many African countries are developing strong trade ties with China, whose influence has soared on the back of billions of dollars in aid and investment.

The EU is concerned that the search by China and other rising powers for oil and other resources across Africa comes with no demands for democracy and human rights. Africans, though, say the Chinese come willing to negotiate as equals.

Officials from both continents said the presence of more than 70 heads of government at the summit showed leaders on both continents wanted better relations. But they left the Portuguese capital with only a broad statement of intentions.

Human rights and aid groups expressed exasperation. Save the Children said in a statement the summit was “a high-profile exercise of little substance.”

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