Inter-African trade seen as a vehicle for peace

By Frank Nxumalo
Hopes are pinned on inter-African trade to achieve and maintain lasting peace on the continent. Africa has several trading blocs, through which this can be achieved.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC), Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), East African Community (EAC), Greater Arab Free Trade Area (Gafta), and Economic and Monetary Community for Central Africa (Cemac) are Africa’s economic pillars. Stronger interaction between these blocs is envisaged to help mobilise the peace process, as opposed to bilateral trade between African countries and the US, European, Asian and Latin American countries.

This was the consensus of a high-level forum of academics, diplomats, government ministers and the media on inter-African trade organised by the Mandela Institute of the Wits Law School in Johannesburg this week.

The delegates were of the view that African governments have to champion interregional trade with South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt, as they are largely seen as the anchor countries for the southern, eastern, western, and northern regions of the continent respectively.

In addition, African governments have to reformulate their trade policies to include a planned growth of inter-African trade that is hoped to counter the devastating effects of conflicts that have scarred the continent.

Creating interdependence
Joseph Mugore, the regional manager for the United Nations Development Programme for eastern and southern Africa, said linking trade to peace was supported by empirical evidence which showed that states that traded with each other were less likely to fight each other.

“Trade is believed to promote interdependence and a sense of international community, building links between peoples and nations and rendering conflict less likely,” Mugore said.

Mthuli Ncube, the director of the Wits Business School, said not only was the link between trade, peace and security in Africa crucial, but that was there was also a need to address the bottlenecks that hindered the growth of inter-African trade at present. "We are aware that for that connection to happen, we need to promote domestic institutions. We need to promote regional trade in order to achieve peace and security,” Ncube said.