Zoellick Both Talks and Listens to Africa's "New Generation"

U.S. Trade Rep. meets with Pretoria University students

Pretoria, South Africa -- As part of his effort to meet, talk and learn from Africa's "new generation," U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick traveled to the University of Pretoria February 18 to interact in a classroom session with a broad mix of graduate business students from several South African universities.

Zoellick provided the students with his historical perspective on Africa and trade before opening an interactive discussion. While the students will be graduating into a world marked by the globalization of trade he reminded them that trade is not something new to Africa.

"Long before the era of European imperialism and colonialism, many of Africa's first civilizations were very connected with trade. From the eighth to the eleventh centuries, the civilizations of Ghana, Mali and those along the Niger River Delta were part of a healthy trading system. Ghana's empire in the 10th century stemmed significantly from its key place on some of the active trans-Saharan trade routes," he said.

Zoellick, who is the first U.S. trade representative to visit sub-Saharan Africa while in office, told the students a reference to history helps make his point. "There were clearly traditions in Africa that predated imperialism and colonialism of looking outward through trade," he said.

"I believe that in my contact over the past year since I have been the U.S. Trade Representative, there is a new generation of African leaders that are also looking at trade as part of their strategy of development and indeed part of their strategy of building their nation. It relates to their notion of growth and to their notion of improving the livelihoods of their people."

Zoellick told the students, "We are now at the start of a new century. ... The future is not preordained." He told the students they are indeed part of a "new era" of generational change that is occurring all across Africa. "I have had a lot of contact with African ministers in the past year, but in contrast to the last time I was in government, from 1985-1993, I really have sensed that there is a new generation and a new attitude among African leaders, not only in the government but equally in the civic society."

That, he said, is why he is spending so much time listening, learning and interacting on his February 12-21 three-nation Africa trip.

Recalling the previous evening, Zoellick said he held 90 minutes of talks with South African President Thabo Mbeki and discussed the possibility of exploring a free trade agreement with South Africa and other countries of the Southern Africa Customs Union.

"Here again, I emphasized ... that the United States is trying to push liberalization on a number of levels, globally in the World Trade Organization," regionally and bilaterally, he said.

The United States, he added, presently enjoys free trade agreements with Israel and Jordan, and one with Canada and Mexico known as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

In terms of trade flows, he said, while the level of trade generated in these agreements is significant, what is most important is that "a free trade agreement can be useful in developing and enhancing local development strategies, and offers ways to lock in reforms, connect to investment flows and produce a longer standing trade framework that will also provide business ties."

Zoellick also told the students that investment capital is a coward and goes only where it feels secure and welcome. "For capital to come, it is up to the people in that region to make it feel comfortable. ... So as one thinks about development, one must think about the competition one has globally" and how one's neighbors are using or attracting their capital.

Moving on to briefly discuss the New Partnership for Africa's Development -- a roadmap for African development proposed by African leaders -- Zoellick called the plan "very exciting" because it presents "African solutions for African problems" in facing global issues and enhancing Africa's trading relationships.

Zoellick then opened the floor to discussion and asked the students what they thought about globalization and South Africa's role in that process.

One student brought up the divergence between rich and poor nations in the globalized economy, saying often it is the poorer nations that get poorer and thought maybe that was a natural outgrowth of globalization.

"Why would we want poorer nations to get poorer?" Zoellick rhetorically asked, because by the common law of economics, countries like the United States benefit when nations are rich and vibrant.

Citing a historical example, Zoellick said that in the 19th century it was certainly true that large countries often wanted to dominate their neighbors and dominate smaller countries and keep them in a position of weakness -- which is a key part of an imperial system.

But today in the 21st century, he said, countries have shifted their view. To illustrate his point, he cited Mexico and its role in NAFTA.

"Mexico is much poorer than the United States, but if Mexico remained poor, it would not be good for the United States because poor countries not only fail to export business, they also export problems -- whether it be narcotics, immigration or environmental problems."

So he said, through NAFTA the United States is trying to help create the economic and political structures for a growing, vibrant and democratic Mexico. The European Union, he added, also has done this with some of its neighbors.

Using another analogy, Zoellick cited the role of Russia, which, he said, often tried to dominate its neighbors after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Zoellick said he would often tell the Russians -- when he was lecturing in the private sector before he rejoined the government -- "You have it wrong. If you have weak neighbors, they are going to drag you down. You are better off having stronger countries" as your neighbors.

Citing one more example, he recalled that Mexico had experienced a debt crisis in 1982 and a peso crisis in 1994. "After 1982, it took seven years for Mexico to be able to borrow on the international capital markets again. After 1994, when they had NAFTA and a trade relationship with the United States, it took seven months."

NAFTA, he said, was good not only for the Mexicans but also for the United States. After 1982, it took seven years to get U.S. exports to Mexico back up to their level before the crisis, he said. After the 1994 crisis, he said, it took only 17 months. "So it was good for the Mexicans as well as the United States."

Summing up, Zoellick called openness a strength for any economy. "The United States is strong," he told the students, "because of its openness to trade, to capital, ideas and people. It is a way a society constantly regenerates itself. ... We, like any society, make big mistakes and we need to rethink them. Openness forces you to rethink.

Focusing on South Africa, Zoellick said "Part of why apartheid was atrocious not only morally and socially, but economically as well, was because it led to a closed society ... a fortress economy," which adversely impacted the country's economic growth and development.

Zoellick spoke at the University of Pretoria, which was a historically white, Afrikaaner institution that has made great strides transforming itself. The university now boasts a larger black student body than many historically black institutions. The Center for Human Rights, where Zoellick spoke, is the home of the LLM program in Human Rights Law, which trains students from all over Africa.

Zoellick began his Africa trip in Kenya, and travels on from South Africa to Botswana before heading home.