The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) has made significant progress in recent years, thanks to the commitment of the continent’s heads of state, according to MrWamkeleMene, Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat.
MrMene stated during a meeting with media managers that the Secretariat had made significant progress in trade rules, particularly the rules of origin, which are critical in measuring the movement of goods across borders.
He said it was always going to be difficult, with over 5,000 different products traded on the continent, and a fragmented regime was an affront to trade and investment.
“We have now been able to negotiate nearly 90% of the origin rules.” So, for the 5,000 products that we have in Africa, we now have close to 90% agreement. It is a remarkable accomplishment,” he says, adding that every single item must be negotiated.
“We have produced all of the certified documents to trade with, and it is now up to the member states to cooperate diligently with the process to ensure that trade is fully exploited,” the Secretary General said.
However, he stated that negotiations on textiles, sugar, and automobiles are still ongoing, and that the textile sector, in particular, is very sensitive to most countries due to the nature of job creation and the capacity to absorb millions of people.
“As a result, most countries are apprehensive of the liberalisation of textiles and so also is the auto sector. Some countries are advanced in the auto sector,” he said.
MrMene said the continent would start trading based on the rules of origin agreement, adding that all the documents needed to begin the trade are in place and those member countries needed to ensure that trade duly happened.
He said some countries including Ghana, Egypt, Kenya, Cameroon and Mauritius have their customs systems in place, which could allow them to import, and export based on the agreed rules of origin.
MrMene said the governments needed to do much work on the customs infrastructure although all countries could not be ready at the same time.
Touching on the private sector, MrMene said it is the pillar of the implementation of the AfCFTA as about 60 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is derived from Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that create the jobs.
He also said that the Secretariat and the African Export–Import Bank (Afreximbank) had launched the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System – a cross-border, financial market infrastructure enabling payment transactions across Africa to boost intra-Africa trade and for financial inclusion among SMEs.
The African Continental Free Trade Area is to create a single market for goods and services, eased by the movement of persons to deepen the economic integration of the African continent.
Launched in August 2020, the trade pact, which is expected to connect about 1.3 billion people across 55 countries have seen 43 countries deposit their instruments for ratification to start trade.
It is also expected to move about 30 million people out of extreme poverty, boost Africa’s income by seven per cent to $450 billion by 2025, and add $76 billion to the income of the rest of the world. -GNA
