Trump's tariff’s impact on Africa and the ambiguous role of African agency

Kohnert, Dirk (2018): Trump's tariff’s impact on Africa and the ambiguous role of African agency.

Abstract

The international discussion of Trump's dispute over import tariffs for steel, aluminum and even cars is so far focused on the big global players. However, African countries suffer in particular from the planned punitive tariffs, similar to the famous African proverb: ‘When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers’. After years of talk on partnership for economic development (AGOA, Cotonou Agreement, EPAs, etc) Trump’s tariffs mean a severe blow to participatory foreign trade and sustainable industrialization in Africa. Egypt and South Africa for example, the potentially most affected African countries, face massive job losses and earning opportunities, with all the consequences that this entails for their already fragile economy and the population in dire poverty. Trump’s intervention thus joins the continued power politics of former colonial powers vis à vis Africa. Nevertheless, despite these asymmetric power relations, unfair trade relations and the desolate state of African infant industries are not necessarily due to externalities. More often than not they are home-made. African agency plays an ambiguous role in enhancing participatory trade and indigenous industrialization.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: foreign trade, tarrifs, USA, Africa, South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, agency, corruption
• Subjects: F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F13 - Trade Policy ; International Trade Organizations; F - International Economics > F5 - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy > F51 - International Conflicts ; Negotiations ; Sanctions; F - International Economics > F5 - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy > F52 - National Security ; Economic Nationalism; F - International Economics > F6 - Economic Impacts of Globalization; H - Public Economics > H2 - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue > H21 - Efficiency ; Optimal Taxation; N - Economic History > N6 - Manufacturing and Construction > N67 - Africa ; Oceania; N - Economic History > N7 - Transport, Trade, Energy, Technology, and Other Services > N77 - Africa ; Oceania; P - Economic Systems > P1 - Capitalist Systems > P16 - Political Economy; P - Economic Systems > P5 - Comparative Economic Systems > P52 - Comparative Studies of Particular Economies; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology

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