Part 1 – The Prodigal Son Returns

Obama visits his grandmother in Kenya before his presidency

By Yetnayet Z. Demissie and Dennis Matanda

While its well within some people’s right to gripe about the past, the relationship between the U.S. and Africa stands on the precipice of a major reset from the Obama family’s three-country tour of Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.

Again, one may argue that former U.S. presidents Clinton and George W. Bush were more portentous for Africa than Obama. However, it might behoove them to hold their tears and anguish for just a moment: Like they say, there’s ample time for mourning and tears at a funeral – but one should also have time to eat, greet friends and also leave the past behind.

We all agree that the Obama Term I was a disappointment for many an African country; that his 20 hours in Ghana neither brought that country significant economic change nor remarkably improved the governance of Ghanaians. But as Africans, we also have a right to hope that this time around, things could be different, and that when the Prodigal Son returns – even though he skips his father’s burial grounds – the stars may finally, be aligned for increased U.S. investment in Africa, for an African agricultural renaissance and especially, for the achievement of a 1960’s dream of Africa’s regional integration.

Alternatively, it may help to put the Obama Presidency into context: The first African-American U.S. president gets elected at a time of both dire political and economic strife; he works against a tidal wave of legitimate opposition and fear of his policy agenda and somehow, manages to have significant achievements that have eluded his predecessors. While he continues some unpopular Americanisms and fails miserably at others [Read: Guantanamo Bay], he also manages to increase aid for Africa, ensure the promotion of good governance on the continent and also launches a national strategy for sub Saharan Africa.

But the U.S. economy is still on tenterhooks. So, what is he supposed to do?

This is, in no way, meant to cosset President Obama: America’s 44th president has not welded his presidential power as well as Richard Neustadt prescribed.

However, in regard to Africa, we still argue that the ‘perfect storm’ exists for the U.S. to take its No.1 position as the continent’s largest trading partner back from China. With the appointment of Messrs. Michael Froman as U.S. Trade Representative and Susan Rice as National Security Advisor, America could finally leverage its infrastructure under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to achieve those mutually beneficial objectives from 2000 when the program was first launched.

For starters, if the U.S. included currently excluded agricultural products like groundnuts, tobacco, cocoa or sugar under AGOA – removing high tariffs and perfecting market access provisions – many of Africa’s rural areas like those in Senegal, would benefit for the U.S. market. Of course, this would mean a huge legislative fight in the U.S. Congress, however, with Froman and Rice leading a multi-stakeholder effort, perhaps people will start to see the benefit of having a Black Man in the White House.

Conversely, with the European Union working to sign the bilateral reciprocal economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with individual African countries, this might be an exceptional opportunity for Obama to lead and benefit Africa: His administration could address issues of preferences and reciprocity in the upcoming Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) negotiations with the EU.

Since two trading blocks should not have different policies regarding market access and reciprocity towards Africa, a common approach to making duty-free/quota free treatment of African products permanent in both regions would go a long way to protecting American competitiveness in Africa. We shall explore this aspect more in depth in Part II and also discuss what Africa needs to do to fully take advantage of the post-Obama visit glow.

Continued in Part II …

Ms. Demissie is an Africa trade policy analyst and Dennis Matanda is an American politics and government scholar. Both work with Manchester Trade Limited, Inc.