Nairobi Fourth China Round Table

The China Round Table process provides a WTO-based economic policy and legal framework for dialogue on systemic themes and relates to these themes to regional priorities.  The thematic focus of the Beijing Round Table was on accession best practices based on the exchange of experiences amongst Article XII Members and Acceding Governments.  The Luang Prabang Round Table focused on the perspectives of Article XII Members on the future of the rules-based Multilateral Trading System.  The Dushanbe Round Table was the forum for an exchange of views on how to maximize the benefits derived from WTO membership and post‑accession implementation obligations and challenges.  

In consultation with the WTO African Group and the LDCs' Consultative Group, identified priorities underscored:

• Trade integration and investment attraction;

• Integration into global and regional value chains;  

• Economic diversification and approaches to value-added economic activities; and,

• Rights and obligations, and benefits of WTO membership. 

The Nairobi Ministerial Conference is a moment of opportunity for the African Continent.  Until the dawn of the new millennium, most discussions on Africa were about its laggard status, stagnation and poverty reduction questions.  In the early 2000s, African growth was characterized as uneven, attributable to the extraction of its natural wealth and commodity cycles.  Now, the narrative is significantly different.  It is based on economic transformation and a reform agenda, positive and promising on the evidence.  Even if a good part of the Continent's growth remains commodity-based, Africa’s rising success is about much more than tilling the fields, digging riches out of the earth, rent-seeking and "sharing" commodity-based receipts. 

The seeds of reform and competitiveness have been sown and have taken hold.  Sources of growth and development are deeper and more diverse.  Several African economies, such as Kenya and Nigeria, have been rebased from lower-income to middle-income countries.  Ethiopia is growing at one of the fastest rates.  Reform-based progress has taken hold.  Growth rates are outstripping those of most of the rest of the world.  In 2014, six of the ten world's fastest growing economies were projected to be African.  Returns on investments are amongst the highest in the global economy.  Indices of human development, such as poverty reduction, education and health, are trending positively for the Continent as a whole, although there is much scope for improvement.

Africa is on the move. Opportunities abound.  In the latest World Economic Outlook by the IMF issued for the 2015 Spring Meetings, Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic outlook remains favourable and the region is set to register another year of solid economic performance, with a growth rate of 4.5 per cent for 2015.  Africa is one of the fastest growing regions in the world, in fact, second only to emerging and developing Asia.  But much remains to be done.  There are governance challenges and failures which impose significant costs, particularly corruption, wasting resources, causing unnecessary hardship, squeezing opportunity, and frustrating growth and development.  Stability is critical for predictable trade, growth and development.  There are infrastructure deficits to be overcome to achieve significant gains for investment and growth.  The spirit of African enterprise has engaged and is manifesting itself innovatively and creatively in a range of sectors in goods and services.  Pent-up potential requires acceleration.  If the Continent is to seize its moment, action will be needed on many fronts, both external and internal.  Africa as an emerging market is a potentially strong source of growth in the global economy.   

The Nairobi China Round Table will provide a timely context for an exchange of views on the way forward for Africa's deeper integration into the global market economy, including its contributions to the multilateral trading system.  What does Africa offer the system and the global economy?  What should Africa expect in return?  Where is the give and take?  What design, approaches and best practices are required for economic diversification, maximizing market opportunities, integrating into the knowledge-based economy, and writing multilateral and regional trade rules for order and predictability that are mutually advantageous?  How do domestic and international policies interact to serve national interests?

Deepening mutual gains require give and take, fostered by an objective professional dialogue.  If opening to trade and investment is treated as the sole objective of international cooperation, little will happen.  If a trade partnership among countries, at different levels of development, and with varied priorities are to yield mutual benefit and shared prosperity, good faith engagement and trust will lead to shared solutions.  This means ensuring that all countries are empowered to benefit from international cooperation, both through their own actions and bound commitments, as well as those of their trading partners.  Multilateral commitments require domestic companion policies and need to reflect capacities for implementation, and flanking support for various kinds to empower economies to benefit from the opportunities to trade.  The mind-set must be give and take, not all give or all take.

 In practical terms, governments need:

• Substantive engagement, constructively and flexibly, to conclude the Doha Round;
• Objective diagnosis of the handicaps and opportunities for deeper trade and economic integration into the rules- and knowledge-based economy; and,
• A shared view of trade multilateralism in shaping the future agenda of the WTO to ensure continued relevance and utility of the institution.

This Fourth China Round Table in the context of the first WTO Ministerial Conference in Africa provides a unique and welcome opportunity to address these issues, frontally.