African cabotage: Coastal waters governance and economic independence?

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Published date: 05 December 2017
• Date: 05 December 2017
• Pages: 28-53
• Citation: 2016 JOLGA 28
• Author: Ruppel, O.

28

AFRICAN CABOTAGE: COASTAL

WATERS GOVERNANCE AND

ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE

OLIVER C. RUPPEL†

Professor of Law, University of Stellenbosch

DAVID J. BIAM††

Postgraduate candidate, Bavarian School of Public Policy,

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität

The history of maritime trade within Africa’s coastal waters

is one of foreign domination and exploitation. Today, the 2050

Africa’s Integrated Maritime (AIM) Strategy urges African

transport ministers and ship owners to consider cabotage laws

for the continent’s coastline. Cabotage is the non deep-sea going

coastal transport between two ports located in the same country

or region irrespective of the location of ship registration. In

light of the ultimate goal to improve the continent’s economic

independence, cabotage laws could exclude non-African vessels

from moving products back and forth in African waters, making

the maritime transport industry key in improving intra-African

trade and development. Although most developed countries apply

similar rules for their coastal waters, there are, in the case of

Africa, specific internal and external barriers as well as the fact

that cabotage regimes are among the most controversial measures

in relation to international trade liberalisation. By investigating

these barriers, this article reflects on long-standing links between

the shaping of today’s global economic competition and some

core problems of Africa’s persistent struggle for more economic

independence in the maritime sector.

[Keywords] African Union, economic independence, maritime

cabotage law, trade liberalisation, transportation.

‘Liberty is the power that we have over ourselves’.1

† Director of the Development and Rule of Law Programme (DROP).

Until 2010, Prof Ruppel held one of the worldwide first 14 academic

chairs of the WTO, which he established at the University of Namibia

where he had previously also served as the Director of the national

Human Rights and Documentation Centre. He is an international

2016 JOLGA 28

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African cabotage

29

I INTRODUCTION

As Africa is playing a more and more important role in international

trade, there seem to be new chances for an ‘African rising’. From

an economic point of view, there are arguments both for and

against neo-colonialism and for a simple negation of an African

emergence, even within the BRICS group.2 However, this article

shares an optimistic perspective of an adequate international

recognition of African States not only as striving to become and

potentially being prosperous nations, but particularly as sovereign

and independent States within the international community. To

that end, Africa’s Integrated Maritime (AIM) Strategy adopted on

the 31st of January 2014,3 intends to develop

a tool to address Africa’s maritime challenges for sustain-

able development and competitiveness, [further aiming]

to foster more wealth creation from Africa’s oceans, seas

and inland water ways by developing a thriving maritime

economy and realizing the full potential of sea-based

activities in an environmentally sustainable manner.4

The question is whether maritime cabotage is the right tool in this

regard. Indeed, is cabotage the right approach for the establishment

of ‘a new frontline of Africa’s renaissance’,5 considering the

arbitrator with the Association of Arbitrators of Southern Africa and

the Swiss Chamber for Commercial Mediation.

†† During 2014, Mr Biam was an affiliate student at the Faculty of Law of

the University of Stellenbosch where, with Prof Ruppel, he conducted

interdisciplinary research on the intersections of international law and

the role of Africa’s economic relations in international relations.

1 Hugo Grotius (1583-1645).

2 For the origin and evolution of BRICS, see the South African official

website of BRICS available at http://brics5.co.za/about-brics/ (accessed

on 21 January 2016): ‘The acronym BRIC was first used in 2001 by

Goldman Sachs in their Global Economics Paper No. 66, “The World

Needs Better Economic BRICs”’.

3 AU ‘Decision on the adoption and implementation of the 2050 Africa’s

Integrated Maritime Strategy (2050 AIM Strategy)’ (AU Doc. Assembly/

AU/16(XXII) Add.1 2014, available at http://pages.au.int/sites/

default/files/Decision%20on%20the%20Adoption%20of%20the%20

2050%20AIM%20Strategy_2.pdf, accessed on 8 September 2015). The

text of the Strategy can also be found below at 202.

4 Paragraph 11.

5 Paragraph 4 of the communiqué on the outcome of the 387th meeting

at ministerial level of the AU Peace and Security Council held on the

29th July 2013 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (AU Doc. PSC/MIN/COMM.2

(CCCLXXXVII) Rev.1 2013, available at http://www.peaceau.org/

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