Remaining to keep Africa impoverished

Upon joining the European Union in 1973, Britain joined an exclusive trade bloc based on its geographical location. A western country joining a western organisation designed to help already wealthy countries protect their own market interests. Yet, amidst the panic that followed the Brexit vote, many remainers were full of dismay and shame that Britain had detached itself from the EU utopia of ‘common values’, most laughably of which is inclusivity. The EU is first and foremost an exclusive group. This cannot be stressed enough.

I am of course referring to the crippling, development crushing tariffs and regulations the EU puts on many African imports

For an outsider looking into the EU it must be hard to understand why Europhiles often feel justified in assuming a moral high ground. No outsiders must feel this confusion more that those living on the African continent. I am of course referring to the crippling, development crushing tariffs and regulations the EU puts on many African imports.

Kenya is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of cut flowers, with the industry generating around £8 billion per year globally. It is a crucial means of employment for 90,000 farm workers and accounts for 1.3% of the national economy. Considering Kenya is a country where 48.2% of the population is living in multidimensional poverty (according to the UNDP), the cut flower industry is a lifeline.

Despite this, on the 1st October 2014, the EU imposed a tariff on cut flowers coming in from Kenya, having the potential to make them more expensive than those grown in European soils. Within 3 months of the tariff coming into effect, Kenyan flower exporters were saddled with a cost of roughly £2.3 million. Just what a developing country needs.

The reason for this tariff was that Kenya had missed a deadline on signing a trade agreement – the Economic Partnership agreement – that would force 80% of Kenyan markets to be open to EU imports. The tariff was a sort of punishment for not agreeing to something that would hold back development in the long term, bullying the country into giving in. Kenya caved under the pressure and signed the agreement on Christmas day. The EU’s ambassador to Kenya said the removal of tariffs was a “Christmas gift for Kenyan Exporters”. Slightly nauseating, is it not?

The EU is keeping Africa poor, thwarting development by taking advantage of the continent’s need for trade

Another example of the EU exerting its control over Africa is seen in the coffee trade. African countries are major exporters of unprocessed coffee, a primary product. Germany, on the other hand, is a major exporter of processed coffee – the stuff we buy in the shops and in cafés – which can be sold for a much greater price. In 2014, Germany earned £ 1.2 billion more than the whole of Africa through coffee processing and re-exporting, as opposed to just selling the unprocessed coffee. You may be wondering why Africa doesn’t just do the processing themselves. Yet again, it’s because of tariffs. A 7.5% charge is placed on roasted coffee but the unroasted coffee is exempt from charge. Hence Africa stays a primary producer, unable to develop and grow its industry while EU companies make sky-high profits on the finished product.

The EU is keeping Africa poor, thwarting development by taking advantage of the continent’s need for trade. The tariffs are a necessary sacrifice Africa will make simply to stop its people from starving; they will always pay up and the EU knows it. In the words of Ashis Nandy, one of India’s most respected intellectuals, “Modern colonialism won its great victories not so much through its military and technological prowess as through its ability to create secular hierarchies incompatible with the traditional order”. This is what the EU has done in Africa, and it’s appalling. The EU is not the beacon of moral enlightenment that the Remain campaign so often painted it as.

Remaining would have been to remain complicit in the exploitation of a continent that deserves so much better

Yes, Brexit may be scary, we’re jumping into the unknown. However, remaining would have been to remain complicit in the exploitation of a continent that deserves so much better. We should be filled with optimism at the opportunity we’ve been presented with. That is, to help developing countries with our own (better) trade agreements, re-enforcing the crucial principle that trade is a most excellent form of aid.

Brexit has the potential to be a real catalyst for change in the world, by shaking off the ways of this trade bloc. Obviously no one expects our little island will be solving the crisis of world poverty alone, but at least now we’ll be free to do our bit.