The year 2019 wraps up in different notes across the world. The West, particularly the United States and a few countries in Europe, puts the liberal world order that they championed since the end the World War II into question. First, with his America first policy, Donald Trump, the President of the U.S., has clashed many times with its ally, the European countries. In addition, the United States appears to minimize the role of multilateral organizations, such as the United Nations and the European Union. The U.S. is the largest contributor to the U.N. budget, but as of December 19, its regular assessed budget has not yet fully paid according to the "honour roll" of the UN. The G-7 summit in August in France ended without a traditional communiqué, which underscores the loss of unity among the wealthiest countries in the world. All of that adds to the trade war between the U.S. and China, which has multiple implications and creates an environment of uncertainty.
Second, Brexit dominated the headlines in Europe, which put the European Union into the unification test. It also divided politically the British people and the members of the House of Commons leading to the resignation of Theresa May as the Prime Minister after three unsuccessful votes on her deal with the EU. Her successor Boris Johnson is likely to fulfill the wish of the British people to leave the EU, especially after his landslide victory on the December 12 election. The U.K. leaving the E.U. is considered to be a blow to multilateralism. The year 2020 will tell us whether other countries will attempt to leave the EU, or Brexit will remain an isolated case. In the U.S., two major events determine its history, the impeachment trial of Donald Trump in the Senate, likely in January, and the presidential election in November 2020.
In Africa, however, multilateralism is still the headlines during 2019. African leaders have marked their history by attempting to unify the continent with the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, AfCFTA. Indeed, the AfCFTA entered into force on May 30, 2019. Out of the 55 states, 54 states have signed the treaty which represents 1.3 billion people and a $3.4 trillion economy. Eritrea is the only nation that didn't sign the treaty. The intra-African trade is still very low, only 19% of the total trade in 2018 compared to 59% and 69% of intra-Asia and intra-Europe trade, respectively. The AfCFTA is expected to raise the intra-Africa trade by between $50 billion and $70 billion by 2040.
The second event which marks the history is the end of the CFA franc, at least in eight countries in West Africa. The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, has agreed to a common currency called ECO, which will enter into force in January 2020. Eight of the francophone countries members of ECOWAS—Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo—use the common currency CFA franc, which is used also in six central African countries. CFA is pegged to the Euro and guaranteed by France. In return, these countries have to deposit 50% of their currency reserves in France, which has a representative on the board of the monetary union. Using the ECO ends the deposit of the currency reserves in France and its representative position on the board; however, the currency ECO remains pegged to the Euro. Everyone doesn't share the change, especially without the involvement of Nigeria and Ghana. ECOWAS should clarify the information, especially for those who have their currencies about the fixed exchange to the Euro.
Nonetheless, we can conclude that certain global players turn away from multilateralism while Africa embraces regional integration. Does the clock which marks the end of multilateralism has already been ticking, or it is only an adjustment?