Perpetuating Dependence Members of the African Union want the EU to subsidize Africa’s capacity for producing value-added goods, and then they want Europe to import the resulting products. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is saying that Europe could concede better preferential access for goods from the richer countries in Africa, something currently reserved just for the poorer ones. The EU will be making a mistake if it does not mimic the U.S. in insisting that African countries also improve the access they give to imports. The WTO is in trouble because years ago rich countries granted preferential terms without reciprocity to the vast majority of the organization’s members. That majority now refuses to ever grant more balanced...

TAGS – Europe, Middle East & Africa, North America