allAfrica.com: Africa: Europe Scrambles as China Makes a Move into Region (Page 1 of 2)

WHEN elephants fight, goes the old African saying, it is the grass that suffers most. This could not be more true than in the case of the rivalry pitting Europe against China on African soil, which is set to climax during the European Union (EU)-Africa summit in Lisbon at the weekend.

Africa is going to be the biggest casualty of this new scramble.

The summit, the first of its kind to be held since a similar gathering was convened in Cairo in 2000, aims to thrash out a new strategic partnership between Africa and Europe, and is in part an attempt by European powers to make up for their ever-increasing loss of ground in Africa to the more pragmatic, and less politically picky, Chinese.

Europe so far remains Africa's main trading partner, with trade totalling more than € 200bn last year. However, China has been making great strides in Africa's trade arena and the Asian colossus last year leapt into third place with € 43bn . It has also massively stepped up investments.

Both the Chinese and the Europeans have recently intensified their courting of African states with a view to edge each other out in the race to maintain, or strengthen, the levels of their economic presence on the continent .

Last year's China-Africa summit in Beijing, which witnessed the signing of a number of strategic agreements and the waiving of debts African nations owed to China , signalled the will of Chinese authorities to perpetuate their presence on the continent.

The EU responded in the months that followed by making a concerted push to speed up the negotiation and signing of the economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with African countries. The deadline of December 1 seemed to have been set for the signing of the EPAs to take place just in time for the Lisbon summit.

Though the Chinese and Europeans insist they have tailored those partnership agreements to provide for an "equal, win-win" situation, or a partnership that will "mark a rupture with the past", it looks increasingly as if Africa will be on the losing end. Look at the way the EU last week pushed for a draft EPA with the east African region. According to Luis Morago, the head of Oxfam International's EU office, developing nations had been placed under "enormous pressure to sign".

"Despite concerns raised by many, including the IMF, the commission has ignored possible alternatives and insisted on the deadline," Morago was quoted as saying in Kenyan newspaper The East African.

"They have essentially forced the east Africans to choose between guaranteeing markets for their agricultural products today and maintaining a degree of protection to promote industrial growth - which all developed countries have done in the past. This agreement will oblige the east African region to remove 80% of its tariffs on EU goods over 15 years, possibly more quickly, which could lead to unemployment and the loss of vital government revenue that might otherwise be spent on health and education."

The EU itself, however, issued a press release saying that both sides "welcomed the progress made in their discussions", which took place in Brussels two weeks ago.

Its development chief, Louis Michel, said last weekend that it would be "good to remind our African friends that, on most international issues, the best partnership they can have is with Europe".

Most interestingly, a source close to the EPA negotiations between the EU, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) told this newspaper that when EU representatives met with SADC and Sacu's member states, they resorted to "bullying" methods to "force" southern African countries sign an interim EPA.

As a result, Namibia and SA pulled out of the process, causing a "split" among Sacu members. "This is very bad for integration efforts at the regional level," the source said.

During the recently held African Diaspora ministerial conference in Midrand, African Union Commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konare said that Africa would reject any attempt at "tutelage" from Europe during the negotiations for a strategic partnership and that it should be good for both continents to speak on equal terms. Looking at the way in which the EPA negotiations took place, and despite European claims to the contrary, this may remain mere wishful thinking.

On the other hand, China has refined its strategy towards Africa and it is paying dividends. Although when it started making forays into the continent in the late 1990s China was content with giving soft loans to African governments to gain access to mineral resources, China has recently stepped up a gear by offering "package deals" - soft loans accompanied by the financing of infrastructure projects.

Subsequently, huge amounts of money have found their way into African coffers without - contrary to European governance practices and standards -- conditionality or questions as to how African leaders would use such manna. This has contributed to making China's money a better alternative to European public development aid.

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