President Clinton, seeking to rekindle the magic of his historic visit to Africa a year ago, hosted the largest-ever gathering of American and African officials at the White House this week.
He renewed his call for a “partnership” between the U.S. and Africa, urged debt forgiveness for some African nations and called once again for passage of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, a trade bill that passed the House last year but died in the Senate at the hands of textile-state legislators who feared it would mean the loss of jobs to their constituents.
As with any such broad menu, there is good, bad and ambiguous in it. In this case, the ambiguous is the term “partnership,” an empty vessel into which can be poured any number of meanings but which, taken at its most benign, is definitely to be welcomed.
Debt forgiveness is another matter. The 48 sub-Saharan African nations together have foreign debts of more than $200 million that their leaders would dearly love to have forgiven, wiped off the books. Clinton tiptoed in that direction, calling for forgiveness for those nations taking sound measures to build market economies and democratic polities.
But forgiving debt–as opposed to rescheduling it or providing temporary relief–would be precisely the wrong thing to do. In too many cases, the discipline provided by the IMF and other outside debtors is the only discipline these governments face. To remove that would be a disservice to them and their people.
The one unquestionably good item on Clinton’s menu of proposals was the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act. Co-sponsored by Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Philip M. Crane (R–Ill.), the bill would award new duty-free trade benefits to countries that embark on political and market-based economic reforms, including free elections, reductions in corporate taxes, equalization of opportunities for foreign investors with those for indigenous businesses, and privatization of government-owned businesses such as electric, telephone and water companies.
Unfortunately, this measure now faces challenges from two sides. In addition to the textile protectionists, it has attracted the opposition of another Illinois congressman, Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who wants simple, unconditional debt forgiveness.
Aside from being fiscally and governmentally unwise, that idea–and Jackson’s bill embodying it–is politically unwise: It would never pass the Republican-dominated Congress.
It has been a year since Clinton promised a new era in U.S.-Africa relations. It’s time that era got started. But it won’t if the likes of the textile protectionists and those fixated on debt forgiveness continue to prevent passage of this commendable trade bill.
