BUSINESS NEWS
G8 'slammed the door'
Posted Fri, 15 Jul 2005
Leaders of the Group of Eight nations had slammed the door in
Africa's face in Gleneagles last week, just as the continent
thought it was on the verge of a breakthrough in new aid and fair
trade, ActionAid said on Thursday.
Caroline Sande, the British-based organisation's Southern Africa
representative, had hoped for further reaching and deeper debt
cancellation, for a fairer trade deal and lowering of agricultural
subsidies.
"We felt we were at the doorstep of a major breakthrough but
that didn't happen," she told journalists in Johannesburg.
"We felt that the door was slammed in our faces."
The G8 leaders said on Friday they had agreed on a support
package for Africa, including a $50-billion aid package, debt
cancellation and progress toward a deal on fair trade.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the deal was not what
everyone wanted, but added that "it is progress — real and
achievable progress".
Nigerian President Olusegun
Obasanjo described the G8 summit a
"great success".
Sande said only $15-20-million of the $50-million was new
money and of this only $9-billion was new money for Africa.
"We need to get to the small print to understand what this is
all about. We know that political leaders are famous for pumping up
rhetoric and scoring political points," she said.
"What the G8 leaders have done is include existing commitments
made prior to the summit."
G8 leaders made a commitment in 1970 to spend 0.7 percent of
their GDP on foreign aid, but Sande said not one country had lived
up to that commitment.
There was also a fear, Sande said, that debt cancellation money
would merely be taken out of existing aid packages.
She said G8 leaders had not said anything purposeful about fair
trade.
"They had missed a chance to set the atmosphere for World Trade
Organisation talks in Hong Kong at the end of the year," she said.
Sande praised Blair and his
government for putting Africa on the
G8 agenda. However, that the British government was "particularly
astute" at practising spin.
"This is obvious when you look at the rhetoric coming out of No
10 Downing Street and compare it with what is coming out of the
trade department," she said.
Sande said the British government's stance on Africa was
contradictory because it was a major supplier of arms to Africa,
earning around $4.6-billion from this every year.
Corruption among African leaders was a tired old excuse for not
providing aid, Sande said. "Things are changing. There are areas
where we can see progress."
Sue Mbaya, the director of the SA Regional Poverty Network, told
journalists she was concerned about talk that the terror attacks in
London, which happened as the G8 Summit was starting, would push
Africa off the agenda.
"The terror attacks in London may have hijacked the agenda but
how many people a day are dying in Africa due to
poverty. It makes
me question the commitment (to help Africa) in the first place,"
she said.
Mbaya said a positive from the meeting was that for the first
time there had been acknowledgement that the way the world economy
was handled, had an impact on Africa.
"That is a first," she said.
Sapa
| 
