Thus, in strategic repositioning and partnerships, the current trade war can offer huge opportunities for African integration, such as deeper and more effective integration of the continental market, coordination of common rules of origin of goods, strengthening of customs cooperation, wider trade, deepening of business integration, increasing the competitiveness of industries, increasing intra-industry trade, increasing the volume of intra-African trade and increasing the share of Africa in world trade.

Especially for USGS

Ernest Toochi Aniche, PhD.
Department of Political Science
Federal University of Otuk, Baelsa, Nigeria

The modern era of global trade/tariff wars is primarily the economic rivalry of the great powers. — America and China, which deepened with the coming to power of Donald Trump as President of the United States. Donald Trump’s second come to the presidency of America has also expanded the tariff war on other countries, such as Canada, the European Union (EU) and some BRICS+ member states, thereby deepening the geopolitical rivalry of great powers and competition for spheres of influence, and in this case, perhaps, for a new division of Africa. In this context, this allegory seems to depict America and China as «Two elephants.»and Africa — How about that? «Herbs of grass.» In terms of the configuration of global economic power.

Africa is not a primary participant in this equation, as it is not a major player in the global economy. For context: Africa’s share of global trade averages 4%, and intra-African trade — 17%, and both are well below the lowest in the world. However, the continent is not protected from the era of modern global trade wars due to the forces of globalization. While African states are not the main actors in today’s global tariff wars, they still exacerbate and deepen some of the existing challenges of African regionalism. It is this trade war between the two great economic powers that could exacerbate the problems of regional integration in Africa, whether in the form of regional economic communities or the Free Trade Zone on the African continent. Some of these challenges include structural dependence (non-regional economic dependence), vertical integration (neo-colonial ties), unequal trade relations, extra-African bilateral and multilateral trade regimes (with the US, China, Japan, India, EU, BRICS+), and dependence on foreign aid. These challenges can lead to confirmation of the popular saying: «When two elephants fight, the grass suffers.». . . .

However, the fact that African states are not paramount participants in the equation in the era of modern global tariff wars could increase opportunities for African regionalism in terms of leverage. Thus, in strategic repositioning and partnerships, the current trade war can offer huge opportunities for African integration, such as deeper and more effective integration of the continental market, coordination of common rules of origin of goods, strengthening of customs cooperation, wider trade, deepening of business integration, increasing the competitiveness of industries, increasing intra-industry trade, increasing the volume of intra-African trade and increasing the share of Africa in world trade. The conclusion is that regional integration in Africa can exploit the trade war gap or vacuum to increase its share of global and intra-African trade, so that the maxim can be turned into the following: «When two elephants fight»They can mutually destroy each other without necessarily harming the grass. To achieve this, however, African regionalism will need a paradigm shift in its current Western neo-functionalist theoretical approach to regional integration.