Page 176 - Afrika Must Unite

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL INTEGRATION l 6 l
national trade between highly industrialized countries may be
m utually beneficial, ‘a quite normal result of unham pered trade
between two countries, of which one is industrialised and the
other less developed, is the initiation of a cumulative process
towards the impoverishment and stagnation of the latter.’1
The tariff arrangements of the European Common M arket
must deepen the divisions between the overseas members and the
non-members on the African continent on account of the in­
creased competitiveness that must result between them. Quota
restrictions and depressed prices can be the only outcome. In his
‘comprehensive guide’ to The Common Market, Stuart de la
M ahotiere forecasts the extension of industrial monopolies to
deal with the keen competition which will develop between the
European members of the M arket, and declares that ‘the key­
note to success will undoubtedly be in the first instance the
ability to keep costs down and prices competitive.’2 Raw
materials and labour costs are the two major items in production
costing, so it is quite obvious where the ‘keynote to success’ must
lead. The development aid which the associated African
members may receive from the European Fund will be out­
balanced by a gradual decline in the national revenues from
prim ary products. Even united African arrangements for the
maintenance of a common selling policy for certain raw materials
such as cocoa, cannot be upheld if one or more of the parties to
the arrangements adheres to the European organization. The
prices which will be fixed by the European members will apply
to all the overseas members supplying the Common M arket, and
the Common M arket states within the African alliance will have
to conform to the fixed prices if they are to enjoy the aid for
which they joined it. African loyalty will be split between the
European attachm ent and the African association, and the
obligation to the former will nullify fidelity to the African
interest.
This is the neo-colonialism of the European Common M arket,
which holds out to the undeveloped African states the threat of
discriminatory tariffs for those who do not come in, and the
promise of aid for those who do. It is a ‘heads I win, tails you
1 Gunnar M yrdal: Economic Theory and Under-Developed Regions, p. 99.
2 Stuart de la Mahotidre: The Common Market, p. n o .