Obama Mimics Cameron's View of the E.U.

President Obama has said he “wants a strong UK in a strong EU.” In his joint news conference with David Cameron of the EU state of Great Britain on May 13, 2013, the president elaborated on his earlier statement in a way that reveals his view of the EU as an entity. In short, he shares Cameron’s view that the EU is essentially a number of economic relationships rather than a political union of states.

The full essay is at Essays on Two Federal Empires.

The African Customs Unions and the E.U.: On Currencies

The East African Community (EAC) is Africa’s “most advanced regional trade bloc,” according to the Wall Street Journal in 2011.[1] The EAC was already a customs union that guaranteed the movement of goods and the right to work across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. The parliaments were working at the time on synchronizing immigration and tariff laws. “We want to develop this corridor vigorously and collectively,” Mugo Kibati, director of a Kenyan government program, said.[2] But the EAC and other trading blocs in Africa, such as the Southern African Development Community, were “backing away from one prominent aspect of Europe’s economic union: a common currency.”[3] Aside from any vague similarities that the fiscal differences between Greece and Germany may have to those between Zimbabwe and South Africa, the currency question itself is out of place for a NAFTA-like trade agreement.

The full essay is at "Essays on the E.U. Political Economy," available at Amazon.

1. Patrick McGroarty, “Africa’s Goal: EuropeWithout the Currency,” The Wall Street Journal, November 21, 2011.
2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.