Imperialisms Past and Present in EU Economic Relations with North Africa: Assessing the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements

The EU is actively pursuing Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements (DCFTAs) as part of its trade and aid relations with former colonies in North Africa. Utilizing the discourse of pro-poor business growth and win-win free trade, the EU insists that North African countries must acquiesce to DCFTA liberalization to achieve sustainable development. This article critiques the paternalism of EU actors amidst their focus on completing these controversial DCFTAs. Drawing upon Nkrumah's and Fanon's articulation of the concept of neocolonialism, it argues that the EU is cementing colonial-style patterns of production via iniquitous trade and aid arrangements. Moreover, the article illustrates that EU elites in their justification of the DCFTAs are replicating the colonial-era discourse surrounding Eurafrica and the alleged economic “complementarity” and inevitable “interdependence” of the European and African continents: an amnesiac Europe thus simultaneously draws upon European colonial imaginaries in the justification of neocolonial DCFTAs while downplaying, and forgetting, the regressive legacies of colonial trade relations. The article also demonstrates how certain North African campaigners are already drawing attention to the neocolonial contours of the DCFTAs in order to delegitimise these free trade vehicles vis-à-vis North African and European public opinion.