Caribbean Trade Law and Development

Tag: Blog

  • From Extractivism to Impact: What I learnt in Zambia

    From Extractivism to Impact: What I learnt in Zambia

    Alicia Nicholls

    What good is research if it never reaches the people it is meant to assist? That question echoed in my brain as I boarded the plane from Zambia to South Africa, the first stop on my way back home to Barbados. In the preceding several days, I had been in Lusaka, the capital of the beautiful landlocked African country of Zambia, a country known for its copper exports and being home most notably to the iconic Victoria Falls on its border with Zimbabwe. I had joined fellows from across the Global South for an in-person convening under an inaugural OXFAM Fellowship Programme in which I have been participating for the past few months.

    I was deeply grateful for the chance to finally meet the mentors and scholars whose names and faces, until then, I had only seen on a screen during our monthly Zoom meetings. Drawn from across the Global South, we came together in beautiful Zambia not just as bright-eyed early career academics, but as thinkers committed to reshaping the conversations around justice, equity, and the global order.

    As a PhD candidate and early-career scholar, I found the experience both inspiring and intellectually-stimulating. Sitting in workshops where our mentors spoke about the role of public intellectuals, I could not help but think of the giants whose work shaped my own worldview—Angela Davis, Cheikh Anta Diop, Walter Rodney, and so many others who never shied away from challenging power in their own scholarship. To be honest, the imposter syndrome was real at times, but so too was the motivation: the reminder that, in my own way, I too could contribute to carrying that torch forward in my research on trade and global financial governance issues.

    Over the four days, we engaged in a series of workshops and practical sessions designed to equip us with the tools to move our work beyond the pages of academic journals and to bring it to the communities and struggles that inspired it in the first place. One of the most defining moments for me was an evening dialogue with Zambian community leaders organized by the Fight Inequality Alliance at an Arts Centre which too had its own inspiring origin story. The message from the leaders, a mix of young people and experienced ‘aunties’, was sobering. Too often, academia feels “extractive.” Researchers arrive, collect data from communities, and disappear, leaving behind little of value for the very people whose lived experiences inspired the research. The published research is buried in journals which are often inaccessible behind pay walls.

    This struck a chord with me. In academia, our ‘street cred’ comes from publications, particularly in high-impact journals. While important, these are publications that few people outside of academic and policy circles will ever read. Unless that research is then translated into accessible forms such as policy briefs, blog posts, short videos or documentaries, it remains out of reach for the communities who could benefit most. Yet, the incentive structure for promotions and other accolades in academia rarely rewards accessibility or impact of our research. If we are to move from extractive research to impactful scholarship, we must push for an incentive system in our universities that values on-the-ground outcomes as much as journal citations.

    As I watched Lusaka disappear beneath the clouds, I reflected deeply on my own journey. Fourteen years ago, fresh out of my Master’s in Trade Policy and about to pursue my Bachelor of Laws, I launched my blog Caribbean Trade Law and Development. My goal was simple. It was to make otherwise esoteric trade issues accessible to everyday readers and to give me a platform through which I could, unfiltered by others, share my thoughts on burning trade issues. Did it give me visibility? Most definitely. Did it help my career as an academic? No, not really. Blog posts do not count toward promotions. Indeed, as I transitioned from the private sector into academia, I had to prioritize traditional academic publishing to “get ahead”, much to the neglect of my blog. Yet, Zambia reminded me that scholarship has a greater purpose when it is accessible. Only then can it move from being extractive to transformative.

    I am grateful to OXFAM and to convenor, the Zambian economist, Prof. Grieve Chelwa, for creating this space of reflection, learning, and growth in Lusaka. This fellowship is already reshaping how I think about my role as a scholar, and I look forward with anticipation to what lies ahead.

    Alicia D. Nicholls, B.Sc., M.Sc., LL.B. is an international trade specialist and the founder of the Caribbean Trade Law and Development Blog.

    Image by Muhammad Syafrani from Pixabay

  • Courting the Latin Jaguar: Brazil as the world’s 6th largest economy and what this means for CARICOM

    Alicia Nicholls

    One of the biggest news headlines to grab my attention this past week is that Brazil, the roaring king of the Latin America jaguar economies, has overtaken the United Kingdom to become the world’s sixth largest economy according to the Center for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). Brazil’s increased economic prowess is part of a general  tectonic shift in the global economic configuration in which emerging economies are becoming more powerful  political and economic players on the world stage. This  phenomenon has led to increased discussion of what this global reconfiguring means for the enhancing of south-south trade, particularly as many developed countries, traditionally the main export markets for developing countries, continue to reel under the global recession. On this occasion, it is worth reflecting on what Brazil’s growing economic prowess means for the countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and what potential opportunities our relationship with Brazil presents for our region, particularly from a trade perspective.

    CARICOM-Brazil Relationship

    Brazil and the countries of CARICOM have long enjoyed a healthy political relationship. In recent years there has been increased commitment by Georgetown (seat of the CARICOM Secretariat) and Brasilia towards deepening  political, economic and cultural ties and collaboration. The year 2010 was a pivotal year for the CARICOM-Brazil relationship as it saw the hosting of the  inaugural CARICOM-Brazil Summit which was  held in Brasilia in April of that year. The summit, hailed as a success by all, led to the signing of the Brasilia Declaration, which was bolstered by several bilateral technical cooperation agreements and Memoranda of Understanding which focused on visa exemptions and technical cooperation in several areas of critical importance to the region, including agriculture, health, tourism, energy and civil defence. Brazil has also called for a CARICOM-Mercosur free trade agreement, which would help to foment greater trade and investment links between the two regions.

    Similar to CARICOM’s relationship with China, Brazil’s growing international presence presents opportunities for international collaboration on key issues of importance to the region, such as climate change. However, it also presents opportunities for trade. If there is one thing that can be said about the havoc that the global economic and financial crisis has wrecked on Caribbean economies is that it has reinforced to us the region’s entrenched vulnerability to external shocks, exacerbated by our reliance on too few goods and too few markets for our exports and  tourist arrivals.  CARICOM countries have been forced to accelerate their efforts at export and market diversification. South-south trade has long been mooted as a way of weaning our dependence on our traditional developed country export partners. Brazil, now the world’s 6th largest economy, presents an attractive alternative market for CARICOM. It represents a potential export and tourist market of nearly 200 million people and is Latin America’s largest source country for outward FDI.

    CARICOM-Brazil Trade and Investment

    CARICOM-Brazil trade has been on the increase. Despite a drop in 2009, it picked up in 2010. However, while Brazil’s imports from CARICOM tripled between 2009 and 2010, the region still registers a large deficit in its trade with Brazil. Moreover, despite the Guyana-Brazil Partial Scope Agreement (2001) which grants tariff preferences on selected items between the two countries, and the completion in 2009 of the Takutu Bridge linking the state of Roraima in Brazil to the town of Lethem in Guyana, trade flows between Brazil and Guyana remain low and highly skewed in Brazil’s favour. Besides the obvious disparities in economic size and export capacity between Brazil and CARICOM, several other factors most likely account for CARICOM’s low penetration of the Brazilian market, including limited private sector capacity and/or will to tap into new markets, language barriers and high shipping and transportation costs.

    This huge trade in-balance was one of the issues raised in the inaugural CARICOM-Brazil Summit and several initiatives were proposed to improve it, including agreements on facilitating trade missions. There have been steps taken to address some of these issues. Barbados has sought to tap into the Brazilian tourism market and now receives weekly direct flights between Barbados and São Paulo on GOL Airlines. In July 2011, there was the official launch of the Guyana/Brazil Private Sector Integration Project which seeks to improve trade and investment between the two countries in a more mutually beneficial way.

    As Latin America’s largest outward investor, Brazil brings the prospect of investment in our capital scarce economies, with the potential of bringing much needed capital, technology and know-how.  According to the UNCTAD World Investment Report (2011), Brazilian companies have invested in African LDCs, primarily in the extractive industries, but also increasingly in manufacturing and agriculture. However, Brazilian investment in the region is low and there are currently no bilateral investment treaties between Brazil and any CARICOM country.

    The future?

    Increasing trade and economic engagement with Brazil is not the panacea for our economic problems, nor will it completely solve our vulnerability. However, it is submitted that as emerging economies like Brazil become  greater actors on the world stage, CARICOM countries should court these economies or risk being left even further behind. Brazil represents a key potential export market which should be and is being targeted by the region. Courting this Latin jaguar should be part of our export diversification strategies, with the ultimate goal of parlaying the gains from trade into national and regional development.

    Developed countries are jostling with each other to tap into the Mercosur market via free trade agreements. A potential free trade agreement (FTA) between CARICOM and Mercosur could create greater market access for regional goods and services exporters into the Brazilian and Mercosur markets, while also helping to facilitate inward investment. Regional governments, through their investment promotion agencies (IPAs), should take a targeted approach to the promotion of inward Brazilian investment, by seeking to attract and channel investments to strategic growth sectors in their economies. In addition to the standard investment liberalisation and protection provisions, the investment chapter of any potential CARICOM-Mercosur FTA could perhaps contain strong investment promotion provisions, including commitments by the parties to promote cooperation between their respective IPAs.

    Regional business support organizations (BSOs) play a key role in developing the export capacity of the region’s firms and in helping export-ready producers to tap into the Brazilian market and convert any market access into market penetration.  Part of this export capacity building should involve language training and cultural awareness. Although a growing number of Brazilians, particularly in large cities, speak English, the learning of the Portuguese language (Brazilian Portuguese) should be encouraged in the region. Fortunately, Portuguese is now offered as a course at several academic institutions, and several local hotels in Barbados have provided language training in Portuguese for their staff.

    Alicia Nicholls is a trade policy specialist and a law student at the University of the West Indies. You can contact her by email and follow her on Twitter at @licylaw.