Talks deepen on adopting Continental Free Trade Area

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa is optimistic that African countries will reach consensus on the proposed Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) agreement to be adopted by 2017.

 “We are making progress; the trade negations forum met last week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to look at the issues that will guide negotiations, including the rules of procedures which were adopted last week.  

“Preparations are being made out; the countries are ready to go, so we do expect some progress in the coming months. We are optimistic we are going in the right direction and that a Continental Free Trade Area agreement can be reached,” Mr. David Luke, Coordinator-African Trade Policy Centre of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, told B&FT in an interview on the sidelines of a two-day colloquium on the Continental Free Trade Area in Accra.

He explained that Africa’s proposed CFTA, to become operational in 2017, is a key African initiative aiming to urgently take forward the continent’s long-standing integration and development agenda, and redress the vulnerabilities of Africa’s economies within the global economic order. 

The African Union (AU) envisages that adoption of the CFTA in 2017 will create a single market for Africa, which will allow its over one billion population, goods, services and skills to move freely -- creating a larger, more vibrant economic space for trade and investment.

Intra-African trade currently stands at 12 percent of total trade, compared to 60 percent for Europe, 40 percent for North America, and 30 percent for ASEAN according to statistics cited by the WTO.

The event, organised by Africa Trade Network, was in collaboration with the Africa Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and Third World Network-Africa (TWN-Africa).

The Coordinator of Third World Network-Africa, Dr. Yao Graham said: “The CFTA is an important trade initiative in Africa, but at the moment it has not received enough discussion among all the stakeholders such as the private sector, women groups, youth and even government officials and institutions”.

The deliberations contributed to strategies for mobilising greater visibility of Africa’s concerns in the UNCTAD XIV scheduled to take place in Kenya, in July this year, as added leverage for addressing Africa’s issues with the global trade system.

The event was aimed at deepening the understanding of and engagement around fundamental imperatives of the CFTA; assessment in the context of outcomes from the Tenth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) held in Nairobi; and developments in Regional Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) like the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). It also looked at the strategic issues in relation to trade and Africa’s development.