Matthew Lee in Nairobi
August 6, 2009
THE US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said yesterday that business and trade in Africa cannot grow without governments improving democracy.
Mrs Clinton is in Kenya on the first leg of a seven-nation tour of Africa. She was addressing delegates in Kenya at a conference reviewing the impact of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, a US trade law aimed at increasing US imports of African products.
”True economic progress in Africa will depend on responsible governments that reject corruption, enforce the rule of law and deliver results for their people,” Mrs Clinton told the meeting. ”This is not just about good governance – it’s also about good business.”
The remarks were seen as a veiled criticism of Kenya, a US ally but the target of growing criticism over its failure to implement a power-sharing deal that ended deadly electoral violence in 2008.
There have been criticisms that AGOA is more to do with oil than genuine free trade. Petroleum products accounted for 92.3 per cent of the $US66.3 billion in US imports under AGOA last year.
Rosa Whitaker, formerly the first assistant US trade representative for Africa and now a consultant, said: ”AGOA is a litmus test of are we serious about helping Africa, or are we not serious.”
Mrs Clinton will spend time in Nigeria and Angola, two of the biggest suppliers of crude oil to the US.
China has boosted investment commitments in Africa, especially in mining, and Chinese oil purchases are expanding from countries such as Sudan.
”China’s influence is increasing at the moment and, to some extent, African policymakers are looking to see what the American response will be,” said Derek Scissors, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington who tracks Chinese investment on the continent.
Johnnie Carson, the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, said any suggestion that Mrs Clinton is making such an extensive trip to counter China’s rise in Africa ”is a Cold War paradigm, not a reflection of where we are”.
Mrs Clinton was going to Nigeria and Angola ”because we have serious political, economic and hydrocarbon interests in those countries”, Mr Carson said before Mrs Clinton’s trip.
In Nairobi, Mrs Clinton will meet Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the beleaguered president of lawless Somalia’s interim government.
