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Mugabe rallies Africa against Europe as talks end in disarray

AFRICA and Europe's first summit in seven years ended in disarray yesterday, with no agreement on the key issue of trade and a defiant Robert Mugabe telling Africa to "fight the arrogance" of European countries opposed to his regime in Zimbabwe.
Europe doesn't have the continental testicles to actually demonstrate its "arrogance" by closing its wallet.
The two-day summit in Lisbon did agree an action plan and a promise to meet again in 2010, but the world's largest trading bloc and its poorest continent remained bitterly divided over how to replace current economic agreements. The EU is Africa's largest commercial partner, with trade totalling more than 155 billion (£112 billion) in 2006, but European officials and businessmen fear growing Chinese investment in Africa could displace it from the top spot.

The EU wants to replace the expiring trade accords with so-called Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), which anti-poverty groups have criticised for failing to provide protection for Africa's poor farmers and its fragile industry. "It's clear that Africa rejects the EPAs," the Senegalese president, Abdoulaye Wade, said angrily. "We are not talking any more about EPAs, we've rejected them ... we're going to meet to see what we can put in place of the EPAs."
Posted by: Fred 2007-12-11
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=212510