From right to left, U.K. Prime Minister Cameron, European Commission President Barroso, President Obama and European Council President Van Rompuy all expressed hopes for the success of trade talks.

By Stephen Kaufman
IIP Staff Writer
Washington,
June 17, 2013

Speaking in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, June 17 on the sidelines of the Group of Eight (G8) summit, Obama said the U.S.-EU relationship is already the largest in the world, encompassing nearly half of the global gross domestic product and totaling about $1 trillion in goods and services and nearly $4 trillion in investment in each other’s economies every year.

“This potentially groundbreaking partnership would deepen those ties. It would increase exports, decrease barriers to trade and investment. As part of broader growth strategies in both our economies, it would support hundreds of thousands of jobs on both sides of the ocean,” the president said.

According to a June 17 fact sheet from the White House, the first round of T-TIP negotiations will take place the week of July 8 under the leadership of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Along with helping to increase trade and investment levels between the U.S. and the EU, the agreement would eliminate all tariffs on trade, as well as address “behind the border” nontariff trade barriers impeding the flow of trade goods, including agricultural products.

The fact sheet said the agreement would also promote greater compatibility, transparency and cooperation, while maintaining high levels of health, safety and environmental protection.

The T-TIP can also serve to develop rules, principles and ways to cooperate on issues of global concern such as intellectual property rights protection, how to address state-owned enterprises and discriminatory localization barriers to trade, the fact sheet said.

Joining the president in a press appearance in Lough Erne were G8 summit host David Cameron, prime minister of the United Kingdom; José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission; and Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council.

Barroso said the T-TIP would benefit not only Europeans and Americans but the rest of the world as well.

“Given the integrated supply chains in today’s global markets, everyone can benefit from this agreement,” he said.

Through the negotiations, the United States and the EU are writing “the next chapter of what is our common history, also forged by the sense that we share the same principles and values, the principles and values of open economies and open societies,” Barroso said.

Van Rompuy said opening up trade between Europe and the United States is “simply common sense.”

“Not just our own economies, but also those of our trading partners will benefit. The positive ramifications will even go beyond the economy as such,” he said, adding that as the global economy becomes more interdependent the world will become safer.

Cameron said the deal could add as much as $157 billion to the EU economy, $127 billion to the U.S. economy and as much as $133 billion to economies in the rest of the world.

“We’re talking about what could be the biggest bilateral trade deal in history; a deal that will have a greater impact than all the other trade deals on the table put together,” he said.

In the coming negotiations, both sides need to maintain the political will to overcome their differences. “This is a once-in-a-generation prize and we are determined to seize it,” Cameron said.

A worker registers auto parts for shipping at a factory near Jakarta, Indonesia. U.S. goods trade with Indonesia totaled $26 billion in 2012.

Washington,
June 14, 2013

The parties discussed bilateral, regional and multilateral trade issues, including their close cooperation within the framework of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and their cooperation on this year’s World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial session. Indonesia will host both the WTO ministerial session and the APEC Leaders’ Meeting later in 2013.

U.S. goods trade with Indonesia totaled $26 billion in 2012, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Two-way services trade totaled $2.1 billion in 2011, the latest year for which data are available. U.S. exports of agricultural products to Indonesia totaled $2.5 billion in 2012, making Indonesia the eighth-largest export market for U.S. agricultural products. U.S. foreign direct investment in Indonesia in 2011 was $11.6 billion, mostly in the energy and mining sectors.

The TIFA session was co-chaired by Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific Barbara Weisel and Indonesian Ministry of Trade Director-General for International Trade Cooperation Iman Pambagyo. The U.S. team also included representatives from the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, State, Homeland Security and Treasury, as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. International Trade Commission.

The United States sought to address concerns related to the growing number of measures Indonesia has implemented to restrict access to its market in the agriculture, manufacturing, energy, and telecommunications sectors, as well as concerns related to Indonesian investment restrictions, according to USTR. The two countries continued discussions June 14, with an agenda focused on intellectual property rights, and were scheduled to meet with U.S. and Indonesian business representatives to obtain their input on key issues of concern.

The TIFA is the main forum for the trade and investment discussions between the United States and Indonesia. Officials meet regularly both in formal TIFA meetings and informally to address bilateral issues, discuss ways to build the bilateral trade and investment relationship, and to coordinate with respect to APEC, WTO and Association of Southeast Asian Nations issues.

The Lough Erne Golf Resort Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, where G8 leaders will meet.

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
IIP Staff Writer
Washington,
June 15, 2013

Coupled with economic growth, the world leaders are expected to discuss expansion of trans-Atlantic trade and economic development for less-developed regions of the world, says Caroline Atkinson, senior director for international economic issues on the National Security Staff.

Leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States will meet at Lough Erne outside Belfast, Northern Ireland June 17-18. The Lough Erne meetings mark President Obama’s fifth G8 Summit. The eight major economies account for approximately 50 percent of the world’s global gross domestic product, which measures the total worth of nations.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is hosting the 2013 summit. Each year, one of the eight nations hosts the summit and, following nearly yearlong consultations with the other leaders, sets the summit agenda.

As was the case at the 2012 Camp David summit, “We expect that G8 leaders will express a consensus that growth and jobs are a top priority,” Atkinson said at a June 14 White House press briefing. And after a session on international counterterrorism, Atkinson said, a session among the leaders will focus on trade, tax and transparency issues in the G8 countries.

During the 2012 summit , President Obama returned the meetings to a “small, intimate, action-oriented event ” among the immediate group of leaders, and Prime Minister Cameron wanted to take a similar approach at Lough Erne, Atkinson said.

“On trade, the summit will take place just as we’re concluding our consultation period here with Congress on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership,” Atkinson told journalists. “On taxes, we expect the G8 to make important progress on the issues both of illegal tax evasion and the kind of legal tax avoidance that companies, when they use countries’ loopholes, manage to shift their profits to no- or low-tax jurisdictions.”

Four years ago, President Obama proposed legislation that would crack down on illegal tax evasion by increasing disclosure requirements for individuals and financial institutions, she said. Congress passed legislation in 2010 to block illegal tax evasion and the U.S. Treasury has been working with other governments to ensure that tax evasion is detected and punished, she added.

Atkinson said summit leaders are expected to work to expand the use of these standards and improve the ability of tax authorities and law enforcement to identify firms that use shell companies to hide tax liabilities. She also said that the president will focus on international efforts to reduce what now is legal tax avoidance where companies use tax loopholes to reduce their tax liability.The G8 leaders also will meet African leaders and others along and heads of international organizations to talk about development, a key component of Prime Minister Cameron’s G8 agenda this year, Atkinson said.

There will also be a discussion on the extractive industries sector and transparency. Transparency proposals would require companies to disclose payments they make to governments in the extractive sector, Atkinson said. The United States was the first nation to require companies to disclose payments to governments in the extractive sector, she said. The extractive sector mines raw materials from the earth for use in the production of consumer goods worldwide.

Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told journalists at the briefing that the president leaves Washington late on June 16 and arrives in Belfast early on June 17. The president will deliver a speech at the Belfast Waterfront Convention Center focused on U.S. support for the peace process in Northern Ireland and also address the development of the economy and society, Rhodes said.

Following the speech, the president joins other G8 leaders for the first session of the summit at Lough Erne. Then Obama will have a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which will be their first bilateral meeting since the Group of 20 Summit in Mexico in 2012.

“They clearly have a broad agenda to discuss,” Rhodes said. “I would only add that, as is often the case at these meetings, we’d anticipate that the president will have an opportunity to see other leaders on the margins of the G8 throughout the course of the day.”

The agenda for the president and the other G8 leaders will include a wide range of security issues — such as the ongoing civil conflict in Syria, the security mission in Afghanistan, Iran’s nuclear weapons development program, and the Middle East peace process, Rhodes said.

After the summit concludes, Obama will travel to Berlin June 18 for meetings with German officials and Chancellor Angela Merkel through June 19, he said.

First lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha will accompany the president, and will largely have a separate schedule that includes a visit to Trinity College in Dublin and to introduce the president to local students while in Belfast, Rhodes said. In Berlin, the first lady and daughters also have a full schedule of separate events.

Geneva,
June 10, 2013

During its first TPR in 2004, Suriname indicated that the decision to participate in the TPR process had not been easy – but that it recognized its commitments under the WTO.  Hopefully its first TPR provided a valuable opportunity for Suriname to both recognize its accomplishments and provide further insights into its regime.  We recognize that Suriname faces added challenges with regards to its participation in the TPRs and other WTO activities given that Suriname does not maintain a permanent mission in Geneva.  We therefore commend Suriname on its willingness to engage with the Secretariat and Members and appreciate its participation today.

Turning to developments since its last TPR, we note that Suriname enjoyed solid economic growth rates averaging five percent from 2005 until the financial crisis in 2008.  Suriname’s intensive participation in the world economy contributed significantly to these growth rates as well as to Suriname’s recovery from the crisis.  As the Secretariat stated, trade clearly plays an important role in an economy with imports and exports equal to 100 percent of GDP.  Further, according to the Secretariat’s report, while Suriname experienced setbacks to its exports and its economy during the financial crisis, Suriname’s merchandise export strength supported a steady current account surplus from 2006 through 2012 and merchandise exports have more than doubled during this period, along with Suriname’s GDP.  We note that the sectors in which Suriname’s services imports are concentrated – transport and engineering – further enable and support Suriname’s merchandise exports.

The United States and Suriname enjoy a solid trade and investment relationship.  The Secretariat reports that the United States imported approximately 10.7 percent of Suriname’s exports in 2011.  In the review period, Suriname exports to the United States, led by minerals and fish exports, increased by 75 percent, and U.S. exports to Suriname increased by 71 percent.  The Secretariat reports that the United States is also among the top four sources of foreign direct investment in Suriname.

The United States commends Suriname on its efforts to expand trade flows and further integrate its economy into the world market.  The Caribbean Community establishes the groundwork for the CARICOM Single Market and related commitments on competition policy, services, transport policy and agricultural policy, among others.  Suriname’s participation in CARICOM is therefore a significant step towards improved trade flows within CARICOM and with third countries.  Enhanced integration within the Caribbean is key to Suriname’s and other Caribbean countries’ effective integration in global markets.  Suriname’s participation in the European Partnership Agreement with CARIFORUM further demonstrates Suriname’s long-term commitment to an open trade regime.  However, as CARICOM reduces internal barriers among its members, we urge Suriname to also keep in mind its WTO commitments, in particular with regards to its WTO bound rates.  For example, we are concerned by the statement in the Secretariat report that nine percent of Suriname’s tariff lines are above its bound rates.

The United States commends Suriname on the reforms undertaken since its last review. In that regard, we support the establishment of the Suriname Standards Bureau (SSB), but would also encourage Suriname to notify the SSB to the WTO as an enquiry point as soon as possible.  We also look forward to learning more about the important improvements to the port in Paramaribo, which the Secretariat indicates has considerably reduced the time needed for ports and terminal handling.

We note the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s objective “to improve doing business” in Suriname.  However, while Suriname has made noteworthy strides to improve its trade regime in recent years, there are areas that pose a significant challenge to this stated objective.  As the Secretariat indicated, both the investment law and customs laws would benefit from being updated.  We encourage Suriname to adopt and implement a modernized customs law to improve customs efficiencies and amplify the benefits realized by the investment that has already been made in the Paramaribo port.  We would also be interested in learning about Suriname’s reasons for recently establishing new preshipment inspection requirements.

The protection of intellectual property is another critical area of legislation that has not kept pace with Suriname’s development.  Intellectual property protection falls short of Suriname’s TRIPS commitments, international standards, and Suriname’s other reforms to improve the business climate, attract foreign investment and diversify the economy.  Effective protection of intellectual property underpins a secure and rules-based business friendly climate.

We submitted written questions which highlight our concerns in this area, as well as a few other areas where we would appreciate further information.  We thank Suriname for its responses, which we are reviewing carefully.

In closing, we would like to emphasize that we value our trade and investment relationship with Suriname and value the opportunity to work with Suriname both bilaterally and within the WTO to facilitate trade and investment between our two countries.  We continue to hope that the Government of Suriname finds value in this important process.  We thank the delegation of Suriname for its participation in this review, and welcome the opportunity to engage with Suriname and other delegations in a discussion of Suriname’s trade and investment regime.

(end text)

Secretary Kerry Arrives in Antigua, Guatemala.

By Stephen Kaufman
IIP Staff Writer
Washington,
June 4,  2013

Speaking in Washington June 3, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson said Kerry will be discussing the report as well as “the difficulty of confronting this problem and the different options and policy responses that countries have had to this” during his June 4–5 visit, during which he also will be meeting with Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina.

The drug policy report “has in it so many of the issues that have been priorities for the Obama administration that there is obviously a very strong coincidence of views, both in some of the analysis that the report presents and in the administration’s focus on drug prevention and treatment,” Jacobson said.

The report calls for a focus “not only on law enforcement but on law enforcement as a part of a much more comprehensive strategy, with numbers that reflect success — in particular, a 50 percent cut in cocaine use in the last five years in the United States,” she said.

Jacobson said the report, which was commissioned by OAS leaders at their April 2012 meeting in Cartagena, Colombia, can form the basis of a deeper conversation among the countries of the Western Hemisphere, which “we hope will be the beginning of a much more substantive conversation on this problem” as nations work together to identify roots cause of drug trafficking and strengthen institutions to combat it throughout the region.

The Obama administration has supported strong partnerships on drug policy in the hemisphere, including the Merida Initiative in Mexico, the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI), the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) and Plan Colombia, which have focused not only on counternarcotics, but also citizen security, institution building, employment, anti-corruption efforts and other measures aimed at attacking the drug problem.

Jacobson said the U.S. effort “is not solely about law enforcement,” and added the nation spent $10 billion a year during President Obama’s first term on prevention and treatment programs. “We are … beginning to see the results of that,” she said.

“We want to have conversations with other countries about what’s working, what isn’t working, where we can do things better. And I think that’s the spirit we’ve seen most countries going into this meeting with,” she said, adding that Secretary Kerry is expected to “interact with many if not all of the [OAS] foreign ministers while he’s in Antigua.”

RECAP OF BIDEN’S RECENT TRIP

Jacobson and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser for Vice President Biden, also discussed Biden’s recent six-day visit to Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Brazil.

During its second term, the Obama administration’s agenda is to find ways to achieve, in the near term, a Western Hemisphere “that is middle class, secure and democratic from Canada to Chile and everywhere in between,” Sullivan said.

The question is not “what can the United States do for the countries of the Americas, but rather what can the United States do with the countries of the Americas?” he said. Biden’s trip was a way to engage on “a broad range of substantive issues, from economics and energy, to education and innovation, to democracy and democratic development, to citizen security, to the growing role of the countries of the Americas in both regional and especially now global affairs.”

On trade, the United States is seeking as many ways as possible to deepen economic integration and “expand the circle of deepening trade and investment to as many countries in the Americas as possible while connecting that to the wider world,” Sullivan said.

Biden spoke in Brazil about his desire to see the country as an active participant in global efforts to lower trade barriers and deepen integration.

“We think that there are tremendous opportunities to do it with Brazil as a partner, both bilaterally and as part of the multilateral system as well,” Sullivan said.

The upcoming state visit of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to Washington in October is “a real opportunity to mark what the vice president called a new era in U.S.-Brazil relations in 2013,” he said, and will include all dimensions of the bilateral economic and trade relationship, including education, innovation, science and technology.

Assistant Secretary Jacobson said there have been dramatic changes in the Americas, such as 56 million people moving from poverty to the middle class over the past 10 to 15 years, and added that as countries in the hemisphere have focused more on global concerns, “they want to play a more active role in looking forward.”

She said the United States continues to support strong democracies and human rights in the region, as well as ways to further expand economic progress through social inclusion programs such as education and President Obama’s 100,000 Strong in the Americas initiative.

U.S. Ambassador to the WTO Michael Punk

Office of the United States Trade Representative
Press Statement by Michael Punke

Deputy U.S. Trade Representative and U.S. Ambassador to the WTO
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Paris, France
May 29, 2013

I am pleased to be here this week at the OECD, representing the United States at this unique forum to come together and work on trade liberalization.

The OECD’s latest work on “Trade in Value Added” is helping governments and traders better understand the numerous times that intermediate goods and services cross borders.

This work, along with the new “trade facilitation indicators,” is highlighting the importance of reducing border costs and delays so that traders can better access global markets and plug into value chains.

The OECD’s work is also demonstrating the benefits that can be shared by expanding services market access. And we appreciate the work pushing into new areas like export restrictions, localization barriers, and state ownership.

Each of these OECD initiatives illustrates that, when like-minded member countries come together, we can promote a trade policy that works for all parties. These kinds of forward-looking collaborations are also needed in an organization of which we are also members – the World Trade Organization.

WTO Members had a rare chance to congratulate one another earlier this month, with the successful selection of a new Director General. To the United States, and to many others, the DG selection process was a living, breathing example that our 159 Members can still do big things by consensus.

Here in Paris, ministers are asking as they should: how can we translate this success to other endeavors at the WTO? How can we gain the same traction to do more big things?

Specifically, how can we – can we, in fact – make progress toward a successful ministerial conference in Bali?

Aside from the DG selection process, it has been a rough four months in Geneva. When this group of trade ministers last met – on the margins of Davos in January – they delivered clear guidance to Ambassadors in Geneva: work hard to make progress on a package for Bali comprised of trade facilitation and feasible elements on agriculture and development.

Four months later, there has been hard work – but here in Paris, we must face the fact that there is still far too little progress.

This is particularly disappointing in light of the hope that many felt barely a month ago. On April 30, at a meeting hosted by China and Australia, more than a dozen participants in the meeting came forward in a spirit of compromise, tabling more than 50 specific examples of new flexibility.

The many countries who suggested specific flexibilities hoped that we could start with modest steps, establish traction over the course of May, build mutual confidence, and remove some of the ground clutter that might clear a path to bigger results.

Unfortunately, the very next day, those who offered flexibility were criticized for not having offered more – including criticism from Members who themselves had offered no flexibility.

Now, at the end of May, we see an opportunity to make modest progress has been frittered away. At last week’s formal trade facilitation negotiating group meeting, the chair (and the four “friends of the chair” all) warned yet again that we are not on pace for success at Bali.

The truth we must face here in Paris is that the WTO will not get back on track for Bali unless those Members who are holding hostages in this negotiation – refusing to allow progress in one area, trade facilitation, until they get all they want on agriculture – stop taking that tack. The only chance for success at Bali is for this hostage-taking to stop.

Certainly it is a part of good negotiating to retain some leverage. But ultimate leverage can be easily preserved while allowing negotiators to clear away the underbrush in the trade facilitation text.

To reach the point at which political consideration of a Bali package is possible, there must soon be a dramatic reduction in the nearly 600 brackets currently littering the trade facilitation text.

This work can begin immediately – as long as all Members, not just some, are willing to both offer and accept flexibilities across the range of the Bali negotiation. The United States, far from taking hostages, has offered and indicated willingness to accept flexibilities not only in trade facilitation, but in agriculture as well. This has been true from day one.

Even as the United States has supported the inclusion of an agriculture element, while NAMA and services have been tossed aside, it is self-evident that any agriculture discussion must be calibrated to what is “doable” by Bali – not so broad as to trigger an unfinishable negotiation across the original scope of the Doha agriculture talks. Current proposals from the G33 – and alternatives proposed – and the newest G20 proposal on export competition fail to meet that test.

When an agriculture proposal, such as the G20 proposal on TRQs, was calibrated, we have supported discussions to include it in the Bali mix. And we still stand ready for that discussion.

As we contemplate our work in the months ahead, it may be useful to consider the two possible paths post-Bali.

If Bali succeeds, including a high-quality trade facilitation agreement, stakeholders will see that the WTO is once more a functioning forum for negotiations. It will be possible to make a credible case that more difficult Doha Development Agenda issues can be tackled.

If Bali fails, countries will continue their ongoing domestic and regional efforts to promote trade facilitation. Many countries will continue their efforts to create new trading opportunities bilaterally and plurilaterally. But the WTO as a negotiating body will continue to fall behind.

This is not the desire of the United States. For the sake of all WTO Members, and in particular those least-developed countries who stand to benefit the most, we will continue our efforts to make the Bali ministerial, and the WTO, successful.

But the willingness of the United States, and of the other Members who have forgone their own priorities in these talks and come to the Bali table with new approaches, will not determine our success or failure alone.

This negotiation is now in the hands of those who have not, so far, shown willingness to move ahead in any real way; those who have demanded flexibilities and then refused to take yes for an answer; those who are, in effect, holding the ball on Bali as we all watch time run out.

The focused question today is, can we effect some meaningful change in trajectory as a result of this meeting?

It is my hope that here in Paris, Ministers will come together around these facts. It is my hope that together, we will find a way to encourage all WTO Members to make one last-ditch, good-faith effort to save the Bali package. As we have said – if Bali fails, it is hard to see how Doha can succeed.

We have come too far together, we have built too much, to fail now. So I look forward not only to discussing and furthering the trade and agriculture work of the OECD this week, but also to exploring, one more time, whether we can make the WTO work again as a negotiating forum. The United States will continue to do its part.

When Japan joins the talks, Trans-Pacific Partnership countries will account for nearly 40 percent of global gross domestic product and about one-third of all world trade.

Washington,
May 28, 2013

During the 17th round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, which ended May 24 in Lima, Peru, officials reported they continued to forge ahead toward their goal of concluding an ambitious 21st-century agreement in the time frame envisioned by President Obama and the leaders of the other 10 TPP countries.

Through the TPP, the United States is seeking to advance a next-generation trade and investment agreement that will enhance competitiveness and expand trade in the Asia-Pacific region, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said.

In their work during this 10-day round, negotiators were guided by the plan of action agreed by the trade ministers from the United States and the other TPP countries — Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam — when they met in April on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Surabaya, Indonesia.

In line with that plan and the direction of ministers to find pragmatic solutions to outstanding issues, the negotiators made progress across the agreement, USTR said. The negotiating groups covering services, government procurement, sanitary and phytosanitary standards, trade remedies, labor, and dispute settlement moved their work forward significantly, USTR said. The TPP countries also successfully advanced work on the other legal texts, including technical barriers to trade, e-commerce, rules of origin, investment, financial services, intellectual property, transparency, competition, environment and other issues.

On “the more challenging issues” of intellectual property, competition, and environment, negotiators had productive discussions and agreed on next steps to continue their work, according to USTR.

In addition, negotiators made further progress on building the comprehensive packages that will provide access to their respective markets for industrial, agricultural and textile and apparel products, services and investment, and government procurement. They moved forward in constructing tariff packages and rules of origin, reflecting input from stakeholders on how best to promote trade and regional integration that would benefit companies and workers in the United States and the other TPP countries, USTR said.

The 11 TPP countries also discussed plans for smoothly integrating Japan into the TPP negotiations. Japan will join the negotiations following the successful completion of current members’ respective domestic processes. With Japan’s entry, TPP countries will account for nearly 40 percent of global gross domestic product and about one-third of all world trade, USTR said.

On May 19, the TPP negotiations were temporarily suspended so negotiators could meet with 300 stakeholders from the TPP countries. Stakeholders presented views to negotiators on a wide range of issues under discussion, and met informally with U.S. and other negotiators to provide further input to them, USTR said.

Ministers from the TPP countries will continue to engage regularly over the coming months to guide the negotiators’ work, find solutions to outstanding sensitive issues and ensure that the talks achieve the TPP leaders’ objective of a high-quality, ambitious and comprehensive agreement in 2013.

The 18th round of TPP negotiations will be held in Malaysia, July 15–25.

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Ambassador Michael Battle describes the U.S. relationship with the African Union as a “partnership alignment.”

By Stephen Kaufman
IIP Staff Writer
Washington,
May 23,  2013

“The fact that Secretary Kerry is coming to the African Union says volumes about how important the African continent is to the U.S.,” U.S. Ambassador to the AU Michael Battle said. He described the visit as a “natural follow-up” to President Obama’s new strategy toward sub-Saharan Africa from June 2012 and his 2009 speech in Ghana in which he called for a partnership with Africa that is “grounded in mutual responsibility and mutual respect.”

The new strategy was followed early this year with an agreement between the United States and the AU that identified four areas of mutual interest: peace and security; democracy and governance; economic growth, trade and investment; and promotion of opportunity and development.

Battle said the United States was the first non-African entity to have a fully accredited diplomatic staff in place to serve the AU in Addis Ababa. This arrangement gives U.S. policymakers “immediate access to the leaders of the continent,” and allows U.S. officials to share the views of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council on peace and security issues critical to the African continent.

Beginning in 2011, the U.S. mission is also the only non-African one to employ a volunteer from the African Union Youth Volunteer Corps, which encourages youth leadership and engagement in the AU’s continental development agenda.

EVOLVING U.S. APPROACH TO AFRICA

In 2009, President Obama said Africa is “a fundamental part of our interconnected world,” and the United States and other countries “must start from the simple premise that Africa’s future is up to Africans.”

The president’s approach contrasted with the Cold War years, when there was a competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to use their influence to shape Africa’s development.

“Now there is an intentional effort to listen to, learn from and engage with the African continent on the development issues that we think will advance African growth and opportunity,” Battle said.

The ambassador described the U.S.-AU relationship as a “partnership alignment.”

“Our responses to the African continent are not generated by our taking the initiative to go into African nations and influence African policy and development. Our course now is to listen and learn what the needs and urgencies are and then to respond to the African continent in light of its defined needs and urgencies,” he said.

A major area of cooperation is with the AU’s peace and security missions for the continent, such as the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and response to extremists in Mali and Boko Haram in Nigeria.

The United States has been working to increase the AU’s capacity to handle security challenges on the continent by providing training and preparation for AU troops, giving logistical support, facilitating transportation and providing uniforms and other nonlethal equipment.

“The African continent is important to us because of the amount of resources that the African continent has that are beneficial to the whole of the world, and also because we must stop the encroaching of terrorism that destabilizes African nations,” Battle said.

Africa is also important for trade and investment, boasting six of the top 10 fastest growing economies and a rapidly growing population that is creating one of the world’s most rapidly growing markets. Battle said the African continent also has the most abundant natural resources necessary to fuel the current technological age, and its vast energy supplies are essential to the rest of the world’s development.

Africa’s potential to help feed the world adds to its importance. It is “the only continent on the face of the Earth that has abundance of arable, farmable land,” Battle said. In Europe and North America, “we have essentially run out of additional arable land for farming,” but as an “abundant space of opportunity,” Africa is in a position to help solve food security concerns.

The AU is marking the 50th anniversary of the Organization of African Unity as an opportunity to celebrate “pan-Africanism” and the “African renaissance.” Battle hopes its 54 member states use the summit as an occasion to come to an agreement on how to precisely define both concepts.

He also anticipates intense discussions on how Africa will achieve its projected goal of a continental free-trade area by 2017, followed later by continent-wide harmonization of trade regulations. That would help businesses from the United States and other countries more easily invest in African countries and see their efforts multiplied in neighboring nations.

Among the goals of the U.S. private sector is to see how agribusiness investment can stimulate African job growth by improving technological and production sites and by training people to maintain and operate the equipment onsite. The goal, he said, is for Africa’s raw materials to be produced on the continent without the need to maintain production through overseas infrastructure or personnel.

LOOKING AHEAD TO THE NEXT 50 YEARS

The AU has a vision of where it wants the African continent to be in 2063, and Battle says it is consistent with the peace and prosperity that he envisions.

“In 2063, I see it as a better integrated continent where many of the barriers to trade have been eliminated, where the movement of people from nation to nation is more streamlined, where there would be a central African passport that will allow people from one African country to move more expeditiously throughout the continent without having to go through different immigration processes when they move from one nation to the other,” he said.

Africa will be “at peace with itself” as well as its neighbors, prosperous and governed by Africans. The continent will be “engaged in partnerships with the rest of the world, not as a dependent continent but as an intradependent continent working collaboratively with the rest of the world,” Battle predicted.