Between 11-14 August, members of the ATN and other networks of civil society organisations working on finance, trade, investment and economic development in Africa met at the 12 ATN Annual Review and Strategy Meeting in Accra, Ghana. The meeting discussed the current crises of the global economy and their implications for Africa's development and adopted the following shared understandings and conclusions.

The global crisis and Africa

The unprecedented global economic crises which have afflicted the whole world over the past two years have their origins in the advanced industrial economies of the West. While African countries bear no responsibility for these crises, they are suffering its worst effects, and they also lack the means for countering the immediate and inevitably longer time effects. There is no certainty as to how long it will take to recover from the crisis. However, the nature of devastation so far caused by the crisis in Africa requires strategic action to maintain maximum policy space and flexibility as well as a range of policy options in order to counter the effects of the crisis and address Africa's developmental needs into the foreseeable future.

The financial and economic crisis has devastated economic activity in African countries, sweeping away small businesses, firms, mines, jobs, revenues and livelihoods; compounding existing challenges and shocks of the highroad and energy crises; and undermining poverty eradication and social development programmes. Consequently, it should be recognised that crises will adversely impact on women and other marginalised groups who are often less equipped to deal with economic shocks.

At the same time, the multiple and simultaneous crises have brought to the fore the fragilities inherent in Africa's economies and their subordination within the international economic order. In particular, the crises have highlighted the continued dependence of African countries on the export of a narrow basket of primary commodities, and on the import of most other products, especially manufactured goods.

This reflects their weak or non-existent domestic industrial sector; the narrow, disarticulated base of domestic production; the shallow national and fragmented regional markets; and financial systems and services and other infrastructure geared predominantly to external trade and the needs and circuits of international capital. These structural vulnerabilities have been exacerbated by decades of consistent application of neo-liberal policies of indiscriminate trade and investment liberalisation, deregulation, and the dismantling of the public sector in Africa.

Thus, Africa's response to the global crises requires a combination of: (a) urgent actions and extra resources to address the financing gaps and to implement measures to counter the immediate effects of the crisis; as well as: (b) the adoption of pro-active policies in the areas of trade, finance, and production to re-position their economies and put them on the a path of sustainable development.

In this regard, we deplore the tendency on the part of African leaders to limit themselves simply to demanding extra resources from the international community for dealing with the short-term financing gaps, while committing themselves to continuing neo-liberal policy reforms. In response to this, we state the following positions and make the following demands in the areas of trade, finance, and production.

Trade

The excessive liberalisation of trade and investment, driven by neo-liberal dogma, and carried out under structural adjustment programmes, the WTO regime, and further envisaged under the prescriptions of Free Trade Agreements such as the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) have been largely responsible for the on-going inter-related global food, energy, financial and economic crises. At the same time, new measures proposed under the Doha Round of WTO negotiations, as well as the proposed terms of the EPAs, will take away the policy space and policy instruments needed for our governments to formulate and implement policies for addressing the crises and our long term development.

We are therefore concerned that our governments are not only continuing with the EPA negotiations, but also are keen to resurrect to the anti-development Doha round negotiations under the WTO. We call on African governments to maintain a firm resistance to the anti-developmental essence of the Doha round negotiations and the Economic Partnership Agreements To this end we demand the following:

With regard to the WTO Doha Round, we call on our governments to:

* reject cuts in NAMA tariffs that will cause job losses in Africa;

* insist on removal of overall trade distorting subsidies and green box support for developed countries' agriculture;

* insist on effective Special Products and Special Safeguard Mechanism to defend the domestic agriculture and the livelihood of small farmers;

* reject any further liberalisation of services, domestic regulation disciplines that limit their ability to regulate services, and the liberalisation of government procurement in services;

* support pro-development agreements on all the implementation issues proposed by developing countries

Furthermore, African governments must:

* revive their original key demands for development that have been ignored in the Doha programme, including the issues of trade and commodities, trade and finance, trade and technology, as well all the implementation issues and special and differential treatment proposed by therein;

* demand Duty Free and Quota Free for least developed countries products;

* insist on the removal of all cotton subsidies by developed countries

With regard to EPAs, in the context of the uncertainties created by the global crisis, we call for suspension of further negotiations and actions on the EPAs, while our governments carry out necessary assessments and action in relation to the crisis. In the meantime, in order to maintain access of our exports to the EU market, we urge African governments to demand the extension of the terms granted Moldova by the EU to African countries.

Furthermore we call on our governments to:

* reject the scope and time frames for market access opening to EU products which are not consistent with the needs of our industrial development; and instead defend a flexible interpretation of GATT Article XXIV which allows special and differential treatment and less than full reciprocity;

* reject the negotiation of "Singapore Issues" of investment, competition and government procurement;

* reject any intellectual property provisions which go beyond existing commitments under the WTO TRIPS agreement;

* refuse to make any commitments in the services beyond their commitments in the GATS

We also urge our governments to accord priority to developing their domestic and regional markets, as well as trade with other developing regions, and to this extent reject elements in the EPAs such as the MFN clause which undermine this. (See part two in the Monday edition)