Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

Uganda president calls for Africa trade, not aid
29 Jun 2007 14:51:12 GMT
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.


AlertNet news is provided by

Email this article       Send comments

Countries

Small country map
© 2004 Europa Technologies Ltd.
Reset map

•  China profile
· View map

•  India profile
· View map

•  Uganda profile
· View map

MORE >>

NGO latest

•  Flut in Indien: Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe bittet um Spenden
Diakonie Emergency Aid - Germany

•  ACT Alert: Heavy Rains and Flash Floods in Andhra Pradesh, India
ACT - Switzerland

•  CWS appeal: China 2007 Earthquake Response
CWS

•  Heavy floods claim 57 lives and leaves countless stranded as World Vision India responds immediately
WV - International

•  Caritas international: 30.000 Euro für Flutopfer
Caritas - Germany

MORE >>

Latest news

•  Uganda president calls for Africa trade, not aid

•  EU tightens import controls on Chinese seafood

•  UNHCR study challenges assumptions about refugees and HIV spread

•  UNHCR study examines HIV prevalence in conflict, displacement

•  RPT-China's leaders make fashion statement: save energy

MORE >>

Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Fri Jun 29 14:53:56 2007