Uganda president calls for Africa trade, not aid
Source: Reuters
By Tim Cocks KAMPALA, June 29 (Reuters) - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni called on rich and middle-income nations on Friday to stop wasting Africa's time with aid pledges and instead open their markets to African products. Fair trade campaigners say rich nations such as the United States and European Union countries give aid with one hand whilst refusing to cut subsidies and tariffs with the other, making it impossible for poor countries to compete. "The Europeans waste a lot of our time coming here talking about aid," he said. "We told them: if you talk about aid, I go to sleep. What we need is market access -- open your markets to our products." Billions of dollars of aid pumped into Africa in the past 30 years has sparked debate over whether money was wasted. Museveni was speaking at a meeting on India-Africa trade in Kampala, hosting delegates from African countries and 30 Indian multinationals investing on the continent. In the past decade, China and India have wooed African leaders as they seek raw materials and markets to feed their rocketing economies. China has rolled out aid packages, soft loans and infrastructure projects for Africa. "The Chinese are also telling us about aid here, aid there, some stadium here, some stadium there. We are not interested in stadiums -- we want trade," Museveni said. He however praised the EU and United States for increasingly liberalised policies with Africa over the past 10 years, and for slashing taxes and quotas on selected imports. "The Americans opened to 6,500 products. This is a very good opportunity for us. Textiles alone -- the market in the United States is $95 billion," he said. He added that he was pleased China had last year opened markets for 440 products, but criticised it for excluding coffee, Uganda's biggest export. China had put a 10 percent tax on raw coffee but 50 percent on processed, denying Uganda added value, he said. "Just like India has become a superpower, and China, it is now the turn of Africa," he said. Analysts say Uganda must make greater efforts to boost exports. Last year, it sold $2 million of goods to India, while India sent $93 million back the other way.
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