General

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, in December 2022, the United States and African countries held the first US Africa Business Forum in six years. Washington welcomed more than 40 African heads of state, 50 African delegations, and 250 American and American companies to discuss how to deepen the US Africa trade and investment partnership. Unlike the traditional transatlantic cooperation between the United States and Europe, the economic and trade relations between the United States and Africa have long been characterized by obvious inequality. While African countries obtained duty-free export to the United States from the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which came into force in 2000, they had to endure many requirements of the United States on African countries based on their own interests and value judgments. As a result of this US Africa Business Forum, the United States began to explore changing the development model of economic and trade relations with Africa. From the results of the Forum, the United States has reduced its criticism of African countries on human rights, corruption, greenhouse gas emissions and other issues, and focused on areas of mutual interest, such as economy and commerce. In addition to the US Department of Commerce's commitment to Africa of more than US $15 billion, this US Africa Business Forum has three noteworthy features.

First, the United States began to switch tracks in its economic and trade cooperation with Africa, focusing on enhancing its influence in Africa's digital economy. President Biden of the United States announced a new initiative on Digital Transformation in Africa (DTA), which aims to expand the digital access capacity of the people in African countries and literacy. As a leader in the global digital economy, American enterprises have strong leadership in the world and unique advantages in digital product provision, system integration and innovation. The overall level of digitalization on the African continent is low, but due to the growth of population size and rapid urbanization, Africa has a huge potential demand for digitalization. The development of digital economy has become one of the key goals of economic and social development in many African countries. The cooperation between the two sides based on the supply and demand relationship is highly complementary. Different from traditional industries, the first mover advantage in the field of digital economy is easy to form, and because of the control of resources, it may build an obvious barrier to entry for the latecomers. American Commerce Secretary Raymond said that he would promote American enterprises to become the preferred partners of African countries to solve the challenges faced by infrastructure, digital economy, health care, clean energy and creative industries. Huacheng Import and Export Data Watch reported.

Second, the United States promotes cooperation with Africa in the space field. According to the Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, in recent years, the private space sector in the United States has developed rapidly. The United States government hopes that outer space cooperation can promote the United States Africa cooperation on the earth. The US Department of Commerce emphasizes that the US private sector promotes the development of technology and the private sector in Africa through space technology and space commerce. African countries have begun to turn their attention to outer space. The African Union has formulated an African space policy, including Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco and other African countries that have announced space plans. China has helped Ethiopia successfully launch a research satellite on climate change supported by a multispectral broadband camera. Nigeria and Rwanda signed the Artemis Agreement to explore space. Although the economic strength and space technology of most African countries are relatively weak, they have great market potential and play an indispensable role in biodiversity conservation, climate change response, space observation and other fields. The rapid innovation and cost control of private space enterprises in the United States are likely to give them a clear advantage in responding to the needs of African countries for outer space cooperation.

Third, the United States began to focus on economic and trade cooperation with African countries based on free trade agreements. At this US Africa Business Forum, US Trade Representative Dai Qi signed the US AfFTA Memorandum of Understanding with Secretary General of the African Free Trade Area (AfFTA) Mana, aiming to promote experience exchange and cooperation and promote African countries to implement the FTA. Since the implementation of AfFTA on January 1, 2021, the tariffs on goods trade among African countries have gradually decreased, and the integration of economic factors in the region has been strengthened, reducing the dependence on intercontinental trade to a certain extent. However, since the implementation of the Free Trade Zone policy is far more complex and difficult than signing the agreement, it not only involves the learning process of the market and the capacity building of relevant institutions, but also may be hindered by the defensive nature of existing market players, and will also change the economic and trade network of African foreign enterprises, including transnational corporations, to Africa. To strengthen regional cooperation with Africa, the United States is not only to gradually change the status quo of the unilateral preferential measures of the United States towards Africa, but also to benefit from the market dividends brought by the construction of the African Free Trade Zone, to promote the concept and practice of the United States on the Free Trade Zone to Africa, and to create better development space for American goods, services, and capital. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

According to the observation of Huacheng's import and export data, Africa's importance in the international economic field is increasing significantly. In addition to the United States, Germany has always focused on Africa. In addition to vigorously promoting cooperation with Africa when it was the Chairman of the Group of 20, Germany is also actively promoting efforts in areas such as energy, raw materials and sales markets to Africa in the face of the continuing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. It is unknown whether the "North South cooperation" between Europe and Africa on this side of the Atlantic is in line with the interests and purposes of the "transatlantic cooperation" of the United States? As a "hot potato", can African countries avoid the historical reappearance of marginalization in the cooperation between the United States and Europe, so as to gain stronger and more lasting development momentum in the cooperation?