Africa’s trading status with the UK has been seriously complicated by Brexit. Since 2000, African states have negotiated with the European Commission for Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). The EPAs are imminently coming onstream in African sub-regions such as the Economic Community of West African States and the Southern African Development Community. ‘Hard’ Brexit, however, means that the UK will not remain a part of EPAs. This has obvious repercussions for African producers dependent upon access to British consumers. Hard Brexit of course also raises the question of tariff access for British exporters vis-à-vis African markets. This chapter examines elite and civil society discourse about the possible contours of post-Brexit arrangements. In so doing it highlights UK aid as a likely leveraging device. Moreover, it critiques the ‘pro-poor’ discourse of Brexiteer elites. It does this in relation to the likely negative impact of envisaged free trade arrangements for African agro-processing and manufacturing sectors and the neo-colonial logic of making aid conditional on trade negotiations. Finally, the chapter concludes by assessing the potential usages of African Regional Economic Communities – or indeed the African Union – to mitigate neo-colonial trade and aid agendas.
Britain and Africa in the twenty-first century provides the first analysis of the state of UK Africa policy in the era of austerity, Conservative government and Brexit. It explores how Britain’s relationship with Africa has evolved since the days of Blair, Brown and Make Poverty History and examines how a changing UK political environment, and international context, has impacted upon this long-standing – and deeply complex – relationship. This edited collection provides an indispensable reference point for researchers and practitioners interested in contemporary UK–Africa relations and the broader place of Africa in British politics and foreign policy. Across twelve chapters, the book’s contributors examine how far UK Africa policy has been transformed since the fall of the 1997–2010 Labour Government and how far Conservative, or Conservative-led, Governments have reshaped and re-cast links with the continent. The book includes analyses of UK approaches to diplomacy, security, peacekeeping, trade and international development in, or with, Africa. The contributions, offered by UK- and Africa-based scholars and practitioners, nonetheless take a broader perspective on UK–Africa relations, examining the changing perspectives, policies and actions of political parties, advocacy groups and the UK population itself. The authors argue that the Afro-optimism of the Blair years no longer provides the guiding framework for UK engagement with Africa. It has not, however, been replaced by an alternative paradigm, leaving significant space for different forms of relationship to be built, or reconstructed. The book includes a foreword by Chi Onwurah MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Africa.