L. Fituni, I. Abramova Resource Potential of Africa and Russia's ...
L. Fituni, I. Abramova Resource Potential of Africa and Russia's ... L. Fituni, I. Abramova Resource Potential of Africa and Russia's ...
quence, their role in the world economy of the latter, as the lead players, on the global market of natural resources is growing steadily. At the same time, Russia and African countries are building relations of cooperation and competition. The dialectics of these relations has not been sufficiently studied yet. It is plain to see that, unlike Russia, the USA is actively and often openly interferes in the energy strategies (or even in the development strategies) of other nations and ascribes to itself the role of top arbiter in what is good and what is bad for the world as a whole and for individual countries in particular There are no convincing grounds to believe that the 44th president who succeeded the 43rd in Washington is going to change this fundamental approach in any meaningful way. The current global crisis is only proving that the 21st century is going to be a century of fierce struggle for resources. The demand for raw materials is likely to grow 50 percent or 60 percent by the middle of the century – this despite the market recessions and the introduction of resources saving technologies. The USA, for example, has reduced the share of oil in GDP over the last 15 years by nearly 20 percent (incidentally, in Russia this share has grown by 30 percent). The growth in consumption of hydrocarbons, experts think, cannot be deterred either by the cyclic crises of the world economy of appreciable fluctuations in the price of natural resources. Even if the high prices of the mid– 2008 persisted, according to estimates of the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the consumption of liquid fuels would have been up, by 2030, to 99 million barrels a day (in 2005, it was 84 million barrels a day). If the prices drop to the average world prices of 2008, the average consumption would go up in 2030 to as much as 113 million barrels a day. 1 This is why American transnational corporations continue to step up their efforts to take possession of new deposits of oil and other types of raw materials around the world. Being included in the category of promising deposits are even such forbidding areas as the Arctic and deepwater blocks offshore Africa. The U.S. government allocates bigger sums for geological surveys, 60 percent to 70 percent of which are funded from the federal budget. The African 15
Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA Act) signed into law in 2000 virtually formalized the U.S. claim to an exclusive position in Africa This is a powerful economic lever enabling the U.S. to bypass many barriers set up by the EU to markets on this continent. Documents of the Congress state that Sub-Saharan countries abound in human and natural resources and the entire continent has a colossal economic potential and thus is of long-term political importance for the USA. 2 According to some assessments, the putting into effect of AGOA made the USA the only Western country that has been increasing export from African countries every year. According to some estimates, it has increased early in 2005 by nearly 10 percent, whereas the share of EU countries has dropped by 2.5 percent. True, the structure of trade has not changed much during the eleven years AGOA has been in effect: the share of transport equipment in U.S. export is less than one third; the share of American electronic equipment is 12 percent; chemical products, 13 percent; food products, 14 percent. More than 70 percent of American import is oil and petroleum products with minerals and metals accounting for 14 percent and 15 percent. At the same time, there was a greater inflow of direct private investments from the USA into African countries. These investments totaled more than $16 billion as of 1 January 2008. The USA does not depend on energy resources from Africa as much as Europe. Still the Congress considers this dependence to be too significant. With regard to five types of other than energy resources accounting for between 60 percent and about 100 percent of American import from Africa, the dependence of U.S. industry and even defense capability is critical. These are primary raw material used in the production of rare and rare-earth metals and also chromium, manganese, platinum and cobalt. The following table (Table 1.1.1) shows the official US government (US Department of the Interior) public information concerning the nation’s dependence on direct imports of certain mineral commodities in 2010. It is worthwhile to mention that the figures do not provide the full and exact picture of the situation, since in some cases the necessary imports come to the US via third countries (and 16
- Page 1 and 2: ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Dr. IRINA ABRAMO
- Page 3 and 4: 330.324.22 330.123.72 351.823.003 3
- Page 6 and 7: INTRODUCTION IN THE GLOBALIZED WORL
- Page 8 and 9: At certain stages of their history,
- Page 10 and 11: tives. The authors are not describi
- Page 12 and 13: cations, including monographs 1 and
- Page 14 and 15: arena by the loftiest goals and ide
- Page 18 and 19: thus the last seller of the commodi
- Page 20 and 21: Table 1.1.2. World chromium product
- Page 22 and 23: Table 1.1.3. World cobalt productio
- Page 24 and 25: shore in many parts of the world. L
- Page 26 and 27: Though US totally depends on import
- Page 28 and 29: isk of supply shortage in the next
- Page 30 and 31: long been obsolete, do exist and te
- Page 32 and 33: a European-African energy forum; th
- Page 34 and 35: upon the same ideology: the new roa
- Page 36 and 37: Force. At the request of the UN Sec
- Page 38 and 39: - The United States has sole jurisd
- Page 40 and 41: uses to track terrorists. Algerian
- Page 42 and 43: sum, in exchange for terminating th
- Page 44 and 45: UK, Greece, Italy and Spain during
- Page 46 and 47: ing Angola’s large oil resources
- Page 48 and 49: China concluded two major M&A deals
- Page 50 and 51: the continent. To help African coun
- Page 52 and 53: egy with regard to Sudan and Zimbab
- Page 54 and 55: some price-related difficulties for
- Page 56 and 57: 100,000 students from almost every
- Page 58 and 59: 15 U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral
- Page 60 and 61: CHAPTER 2 Natural Resource Potentia
- Page 62 and 63: tion in the global division of labo
- Page 64 and 65: of other nations (manifest in an ex
Growth <strong>and</strong> Opportunity Act (AGOA Act) signed into law in 2000<br />
virtually formalized the U.S. claim to an exclusive position in <strong>Africa</strong><br />
This is a powerful economic lever enabling the U.S. to bypass many<br />
barriers set up by the EU to markets on this continent. Documents <strong>of</strong><br />
the Congress state that Sub-Saharan countries abound in human <strong>and</strong><br />
natural resources <strong>and</strong> the entire continent has a colossal economic<br />
potential <strong>and</strong> thus is <strong>of</strong> long-term political importance for the USA. 2<br />
According to some assessments, the putting into effect <strong>of</strong><br />
AGOA made the USA the only Western country that has been increasing<br />
export from <strong>Africa</strong>n countries every year. According to<br />
some estimates, it has increased early in 2005 by nearly 10 percent,<br />
whereas the share <strong>of</strong> EU countries has dropped by 2.5 percent. True,<br />
the structure <strong>of</strong> trade has not changed much during the eleven years<br />
AGOA has been in effect: the share <strong>of</strong> transport equipment in U.S.<br />
export is less than one third; the share <strong>of</strong> American electronic<br />
equipment is 12 percent; chemical products, 13 percent; food products,<br />
14 percent. More than 70 percent <strong>of</strong> American import is oil <strong>and</strong><br />
petroleum products with minerals <strong>and</strong> metals accounting for 14 percent<br />
<strong>and</strong> 15 percent. At the same time, there was a greater inflow <strong>of</strong><br />
direct private investments from the USA into <strong>Africa</strong>n countries.<br />
These investments totaled more than $16 billion as <strong>of</strong> 1 January<br />
2008.<br />
The USA does not depend on energy resources from <strong>Africa</strong> as<br />
much as Europe. Still the Congress considers this dependence to be<br />
too significant. With regard to five types <strong>of</strong> other than energy resources<br />
accounting for between 60 percent <strong>and</strong> about 100 percent <strong>of</strong><br />
American import from <strong>Africa</strong>, the dependence <strong>of</strong> U.S. industry <strong>and</strong><br />
even defense capability is critical. These are primary raw material<br />
used in the production <strong>of</strong> rare <strong>and</strong> rare-earth metals <strong>and</strong> also chromium,<br />
manganese, platinum <strong>and</strong> cobalt.<br />
The following table (Table 1.1.1) shows the <strong>of</strong>ficial US government<br />
(US Department <strong>of</strong> the Interior) public information concerning<br />
the nation’s dependence on direct imports <strong>of</strong> certain mineral commodities<br />
in 2010. It is worthwhile to mention that the figures do not<br />
provide the full <strong>and</strong> exact picture <strong>of</strong> the situation, since in some<br />
cases the necessary imports come to the US via third countries (<strong>and</strong><br />
16
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