Thread by @nssylla

[Thread] Many people say that #France does “no longer” need #Africa. Their argument: France’s declining trade share in the continent, and esp. with the 14 countries still using a colonial currency controlled by the French Treasury, the #CFA #franc.

They stress in particular that Africa represents around 5% of French global trade. So, for them, this is evidence that any claim of French dependence on Africa or #neocolonialism is an exaggeration.

Their argument has a name: the “small ratio argument” (SRA). It was used by those who denied the tremendous economic impact of the slave trade on the economic development of the West. It is now used by the cheerleaders of French #neocolonialism.

The author who powerfully debunked the SRA is William Darity Jr, @SandyDarity, in the collective volume below. On chap. 9, he wrote:
dukeupress.edu/the-atlantic-s…

“smallness in an absolute sense tells us nothing about the contextual or causal significance of Europe’s trade with the periphery […] Without consideration of the composition of trade the interindustrial linkages and differential multiplier effects […] small ratios are empty”

Those who use the SRA, like much mainstream economics, do not make the elementary yet crucial distinction between “statistical significance” and “economic significance”. They judge the latter by the former. Theoretical poverty of #empiricism!

Hence, the SRA-users do not have any adequate theorization of the economic importance of “strategic goods”, goods essential for economic activity and which are conducive to strong multiplier effects.

Would European countries still have chocolate industries if the African and Lat. Am. countries that produce most of the world cocoa stopped exporting this commodity? Do the USD value of cocoa exports really reflect their economic importance for the world economy and trade?

What would have happened to the French nuclear #military industry which until recently was 100 % dependent on the #uranium from #Niger if Niger could stop the export of this ecologically devastating product?

In 2020 Russia exported € 291 billion globally, less than #Taiwan (€ 304 billion, 2.4 % of world trade). Does it mean that Taiwan is more important for the global economy and trade than #Russia?

In 2021, Russia “only” accounted for 2.3 % of German foreign trade. A SRA-user would conclude that Russia is hardly relevant for #Germany’s economic well-being. Is it really the case?

France represented 2.8 % of global exports in 2020 (UNCTAD data) vs. around 11% of the imports of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (#WAEMU) (BCEAO data).

So, how to explain that the French export share is 4 times higher in West African #Cfaland compared to its global average?

The thing is also that one has to look at who controls the export sector. In a country such as Niger, before the arrival of Chinese companies, the “external” trade of Niger was “internal” to the French economy.

Niger basically exported uranium that used to be controlled by a French company that exported it. So the trade was not “international”. Rather a French company having activities in Niger “traded” uranium with France.

Next to their high footprint in terms of ecological devastation, one characteristic of the “strategic goods” exported by the Global South is that they imply hidden value transfers (super exploitation of the labor force).

So, using the existing international price structure to argue the so-called economic insignificance of Global South countries for the well-being of #imperialist countries is an “original sin” of all conventional and unsophisticated forms of economic analysis.

Whatever the size of the French trade with Cfaland, the reality is that Cfaland transfers goods gratis to France: whatever France pays in money terms for its imports from Cfaland is lent back by Cfaland…

…as the result of the obligation of Cfaland central banks to deposit 50 % of their forex at the French Treasury (this has not changed much with the so-called Macron “reform” for West African CFA franc).

French economist Jacques #Rueff wrote: “If I had an agreement with my tailor that whatever money I pay him he returns to me the very same day as a loan, I would have no objection at all to ordering more suits from him”.

His quote was aimed at describing the US dollar system. It applies as well to the CFA system. The dysfunctional and indefensible CFA franc peg to the euro works to maintain this “exorbitant privilege” for France.

Well, it’s time we devise a proper “Economics of Imperialism 101” curriculum for the cheerleaders of global domination and a proper "Economics for liberation 101" curriculum for the friends of global equality.

It’s time for me to return to more urgent matters! As critical intellectuals, our task is to creating internationalist ties that everywhere liberate the exploited and the oppressed from their shackles.