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AU, stakeholders mull draft agreement on CFTA

According to the AUC, the draft framework will address measures to meet the ambition set by the AU leaders on achieving continental free trade on goods and services ...
African Union

African Union

Preparatory to the implementation of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) economy by 2017, the African Union Commission (AUC), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development have mulled crafting a draft agreement that would allow AU member countries to meet the target.

According to the AUC, the draft framework will address measures to meet the ambition set by the AU leaders on achieving continental free trade on goods and services, while recognizing the asymmetric level of integration achieved in different RECs and specific trade and development challenges facing individual African countries.

AUC representative, Babajide Sodipo, at an expert meeting stated that the CFTA agreement should be based on the Abuja Treaty, which would provide guiding principles for the CFTA.

He emphasized the need for the CFTA negotiations to be driven by AU member states and their regional economic communities (RECs), with the free trade agreements (FTAs) of the REC being used as the building blocks for the continental agreement.

While different aspects of possible legal texts of the CFTA were examined, drawing on existing legal instruments such as the Abuja Treaty and other sub-regional and regional trade agreements, and examining different legal options and policy implications, AUC Deputy Chairman, Erastus Mwencha, and the AU Commissioner for Trade and Industry, Ms. Fatima Haram Acyl, expressed their appreciation to the experts for their contribution to the drafting exercise.

On its part, UNCTAD, noted that with cooperation from the AU Commission, ECA and other partners, it will continue to support African countries and RECs in their engagement in the forthcoming phases of the CFTA negotiations, including those aimed at the development of negotiating modalities for trade in goods and services

Indeed, while the three Regional Economic Communities (RECs)—the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC)—have reached an agreement to expedite the process towards the operationalization of the tripartite Free Trade Area by finalising outstanding issues, the ECOWAS region continues to lag behind as the region continues to grapple with infrastructure and red tapes.

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