By Dr Maurice Ezuruike, International
Legislative Consultant
The African Union (AU) with its 55 Member States has
been accorded permanent membership status
to the Group of Twenty (G-20), comparable to the European Union (EU) which until
the admission of the AU was the 20th full member of the G-20 with
its 28 member countries.The EU’s membership also includes three of its Member
States France, Germany, and Italy who are also permanent members while South
Africa is currently the only G20 member from Africa. With this development, the
group previously known as Group
of Twenty (G-20) will now be known as Group of Twenty-One (G-21).
The
G20 is the premier forum for international cooperation amongst the world’s
major advanced and emerging economies on the most important aspects of the
international economic and financial agenda. It is established on the objective
of creating a platform for policy coordination between its members in order to
achieve global economic stability, sustainable growth, promote financial
regulations that reduce risks and prevent future financial crises and create a
new international financial architecture.
The
G20 countries cumulatively account for around 90% of global GDP, 80% of global
trade, and two thirds of the world’s population. It consists of Argentina,
Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, EU, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy,
Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, UK and
USA.
As an intergovernmental forum, it focuses on major issues
related to the global economy and more particularly on international financial
stability, climate change mitigation and sustainable development.
There has been long standing recognition that multilateralism
is the most significant avenue to global stability and economic sustainability
but regrettably, Africa’s past engagements at the global arena have been
characterized by an experience and history of uncoordinated economic governance
and a convergence of fragmented economic frameworks. Consequently, on issues
with far reaching implications on the continent such as climate change,
pandemics and security, Africa is relegated to the background and made to
absorb the decisions made by other global nations.
However, there is a new paradigm with the AU’s growing
centrality in Africa’s economic governance as manifested in the introduction of
Africa’s over-arching development plan – Agenda 2063 which is operationalized
by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). AfCFTA embodies tremendous opportunities for growth and
sustainable development with the potential to create a continental free-trade zone and a combined
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD$3.4 trillion.
Considering that it emphasizes
the reduction of tariffs and non-tariff barriers, and the facilitation of
free movement of people and labor, right of residence, right of establishment,
and investment, AfCFTA will unite all 55 member states
of the African Union under a common market with a population of over 1.2
billion people. With a booming middle class and the prospects of eliminating
import duties and reduction in non-tariff barriers, AfCFTA has the potential to
boost intra-African trade by 52.3 percent and transform it as the world’s
largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organization.
It is undeniable that the potential impact of this economic
blueprint to global economic governance was the driving force to the decision
by the G20 to grant permanent membership status to the AU. The pre-admission support
that the leaders of industrialized nations expressed to the admission of the AU
into this global relations structure was phenomenal. Even after the admission,
the commendations about AU institutional restructuring and the prospects of
greater partnership with the AU have been effusive.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that he “supports the
full and complete integration of the African Union into the G20” and
comparatively in the same way as the European Union is a member.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said that Beijing will support
the African Union in its decades-long quest to join the G20.
US President Biden in acknowledging AfCFTA as a major
economic blueprint to spur industrialization in Africa if properly implemented reaffirmed
his commitment to support a permanent seat for the African Union at the G20.
Undoubtedly, the impetus to these influx of support by these
global leaders have been predicated on the development by the AU of regional
integration instruments and processes comparable to the EU which until now was the
only regional organization with membership at the G20 and whose membership in
the G20 has motivated the support for the AU.
This permanent membership status to the AU will not only ensure
the constructive engagement of African nations on critical global challenges
relating more particularly to international financial stability, climate change
mitigation and sustainable development, it will also enhance Africa’s access to
common framework for debt restructuring and debt service suspension initiative.
More so this decision to admit the AU will enhance G20’s global influence,
strengthen global economic governance and effectiveness in the implementation
of G20 endorsed policies with a corresponding coherence in the coordination of
policies in Africa.
The prospects envisioned in AfCFTA by the global leaders and
upon which their decision to accord AU permanent membership status to the G20
have made the successful implementation of AfCFTA an absolute imperative if the
gains envisioned in this multilateral global engagement and strategic
partnership is to be actualized or have any meaningful impact in Africa’s
sustainability and economic development.
However
of great concern is the fact that AfCFTA is fraught with critical challenges
that several economic experts have identified as potential impediments to
maximizing its full benefits. Notable amongst them are the disparities that
exist in the level of institutional competencies within member states of the
African Union to implement the foundational principles of the agreement, the
high level of dilapidated and non-existent essential infrastructural framework,
weak fiscal and monetary policy, the lack of ratification of the agreement by
some AU member states, political instability and overlapping
memberships in regional economic communities.
These surmountable challenges underscore the imperative to
engage relevant organs within the AU governance matrix with demonstrable capacities
to mitigate the institutional impediments to the full realization of the
objectives of AfCFTA.
Concededly, when you
consider the impediments identified by experts and the need to establish an
effective mitigation framework, the Pan African Parliament is uniquely equipped
with the relevant institutional capacity to establish legal and legislative
framework to harmonize competing regional economic agreements, ensure complete ratification by all member states and develop model
laws covering trade in goods and services, investment, intellectual property
rights and competition policy.
This
is far more pertinent when you consider that the operational phase of the
AfCFTA has been launched with defined five key instruments that will govern the
agreement and the need to
inculcate them in Member States’ respective National Development Plans. The key instruments that were adopted consist of the Rules
of Origin; the Tariff concessions; online mechanism on monitoring, reporting
and elimination of non-tariff barriers (NTB’s); the Pan-African payment and
settlement system; and the African Trade Observatory. There is need to develop national strategies to guide the
implementation of the operational phase of AfCFTA and to also ensure that the
principles of these operational instruments are efficiently integrated
into national development strategies and priorities.
Because of the already strong and cordial relations between
the Pan African Parliament and National Parliaments in Africa, PAP can
effectively establish a platform to articulate coherent guidelines for
implementation of the five operational instruments that will govern AfCFTA and for generating
legislative underpinnings to mitigate trading barriers.
The Pan African Parliament has historically adopted
programmes that strengthen continental frameworks and instruments and has
established robust mechanisms whereby members of Pan African Parliament take
back critical parliamentary resolutions, debates and issues affecting ordinary
citizens to member states. Pan African Parliamentarians
by their unique responsibility in the development of national budgetary processes
are suitably situated to reflect the principles of these operational strategies
in their national budget priorities and give it more effect.
Another major huddle to AfCFTA is the eight regional
economic communities (RECs) that currently exist in Africa with overlapping
memberships. This creates the potential for fragmentation and incoherence
especially when one considers disparities in levels of regional trading
arrangements and the competing strategies for economic integration. This is
further compounded by existing free trade agreements already negotiated by
respective members of regional economic communities as well as the regional and
national trading arrangements with other countries, such as the economic
partnership agreements (EPAs) that some African countries and country
groups have negotiated with the EU. These
present a unique challenge on how this new AfCFTA agreement will operate and illustrate
the need for harmonization especially in areas where there is conflicting trade
positions with AfCFTA.
The Pan African Parliament has demonstrated the capacity to
assemble regional communities for cooperation and relationship. It has since
its inception strengthened ties with regional and national parliaments and
pursued programmes aimed at integrating the African continent within the
framework of the establishment of the African Union consistent with its
foundational objective of facilitating cooperation and development in Africa
and facilitating cooperation among regional economic communities and their
parliamentary fora.
Through this platform and particularly the “Speakers
Conference”, the continent can sensitize member states on the different routes
that regions have adopted to pursue economic integration, offer unique
opportunity to understand how to accommodate the varying development levels,
articulate efficient models, and establish a platform for harmonization so that
the various regimes and models adopted by member states operate in a manner
that enhances coherence in an already complex trading system.
By creating this platform, PAP has made it easier for
leaders of various regional economic communities to come together and review
existing strategic frameworks, and existing regional or multinational trade
agreements in the various African States, evaluate the potential
development impacts and extrapolate relevant factors to ensure that the
existing agreements are coherent and supportive of sustainable development in
the continent. It can also analyze the legislative underpinnings of the
frameworks, establish coherent mechanism for achieving the objectives of the
agreement and articulate concrete institutional framework of
coordination and harmonization with existing regional communities and
trading ties with other partners.
The AfCFTA framework also envisions an agreement that
will continue to evolve over time as more negotiations are planned. The
efficiency of this process will require the engagement of PAP to guide the
establishment of a functional legal, regulatory and legislative framework for continental
integration by its ability to develop model laws.
Another major impediment to AfCFTA is the absence of
universal ratification by Member States. This presents a unique challenge that
must be rectified if the suboptimal impacts of this trade agreement
to Africa’s development and economic transformation are to be derived.
The African Union record on the ratification of this agreement reflects that
only 44 of the African Union’s (AU) 55 member States have ratified the
agreement, although fifty-four AU member States have signed the AfCFTA with the
exception of Eritrea. The implication is that while AfCFTA is in effect for
those 44 of the African Union’s (AU) 55 member States that have ratified
the agreement, the countries that have not ratified will be outside of the
process. The efficacy of this agreement will require the participation and cooperation
of the entire member states of the African Union. While ratification of the
agreement does not require the entire member states, it will however require
the engagement of all member states for optimal results. This makes full
ratification an absolute economic necessity.
The Pan African Parliament possesses enormous experience in
fostering and accelerating
the ratification and domestication of various continental
instruments especially those that enhance continental integration. PAP’s remarkable success in this
process is strengthened by its ties with Regional and National parliaments
through its annual conference of Speakers of African National Parliaments and
Parliaments of Regional Economic Communities. Through
this conference, Africa’s regional and national parliaments are sensitized on
African Union decisions especially the legal instruments and the need to
achieve speedy ratification and domestication.
Undeniably the agreement’s success in promoting seamless trade across
the continent and promoting the movement of Africans within the continent will
hinge on developing viable legislative infrastructure aimed at mitigating the
barriers to a complete ratification process. PAP has the unique and historical experience
and success in articulating and implementing coherent strategies and proffering
parliamentary pathways to sustaining speedy ratification of AU legal
instruments and will definitely replicate that success with the AfCFTA.
The global expectations and particularly
the expectations of the citizens of Africa in the admission of the AU as a
permanent member of G20 are remarkably high and the intrinsic benefits of
AfCFTA are not only significant to sustainable development in Africa but also unquestionably
consequential to the actualization of the intrinsic values of AU’s admission to
permanent status at the G-20.
AU should exploit the unique platform provided
through PAP to actualize the objectives of AfCFTA. This will reaffirm the credibility
and perceived economic strength of Africa as collectively embodied and consolidated
in the AU and accelerate its quest to contribute to a more
prosperous future for the peoples of Africa by promoting collective
self-reliance, economic recovery, strengthening continental solidarity and
building a sense of common destiny among the peoples of Africa.
The admission of the African Union (AU) was patterned after
the European Union (EU) model. The AU has similar institutional framework like
the EU with the exception of a fully independent legislative institution with
substantial funding architecture to regulate and provide oversight in the
implementation of the G20 economic blueprints and policies.
Unlike the AU, the EU appreciates and recognizes
that no legitimate form of government or instrument of public governance has
ever existed or remained viable in any democratic arrangement without a
functional, effective and sustainable legislative institution. They ensured
that their governance architecture incorporates a legislative institution that
is independent, participates in the initiation and promulgation of
institutional policies, and remain substantially capacitated with adequate
funding architecture.
The AU on the other hand has consistently functioned
with relative inefficiency partly due to the absence of the accountability
framework offered through a legislative oversight responsibility. They have
essentially decapitated the Pan African Parliament with poor budgetary
allocation, micromanaged its constitutionally vested engagements and reduced it
to a mere rubber-stamp political institution without tangible legislative
competence.
If this trend is not reversed, and
if the African Union is seen not to have an active, vibrant, meaningful, and
legitimate legislature, the AU may well be returning Africa to the pre-G20 era
where Africa’s engagement at the global arena was characterized by an experience of absorbing the decisions made by other
global nations on issues with far
reaching implications on the continent such as climate
change, pandemics and security.
To have an effective and vibrant legislature in any
system of representative democracy and a meaningful legislative process, a
legislative institution must be substantially capacitated to undertake the
functions that are fundamentally rooted in their foundational philosophy and
objectives.
The critical challenge for the Pan African
Parliament is the absence of an established and independent institutional
framework of financial support. It is irrefutable that no legislature can be effective unless it has adequate resources to
undertake its foundational representative task, conduct research on policy
issues, develop model laws, analyze data, and make recommendations either
through resolutions or policy formulation.
Undeniably, the Pan African Parliament remains an
indispensable institutional
framework for the actualization of the
inherently huge economic potentials embodied in the G-20 membership as it
represents a strong continental coordinating mechanism to facilitate monitoring
and evaluation of the impact of the economic programmes at the national level.
By virtue of their constitutional role in budgetary allocations, they can
ensure that the G-20 economic
principles are reflected at national budget priorities and the inherent
economic gains of a multilateral engagement in the G-20 will not be elusive.
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