AFCFTA SHOULD BENEFIT ALL

(In Johannesburg courtesy of the
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung)

JOHANNESBURG – With the operational phase Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) scheduled to be launched in 2020, the view is that this largest trading bloc in the world should not benefit the most industrialised countries only.

Instead, it should be an all-inclusive programme that benefits even those countries that are considered to be small both in size and shape.
Speaking on the sidelines of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Conference on Challenges for Multilateral Trading System – Perspectives from Southern Africa, taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa, Marumo Nkomo said there was still a lot of work to be done in the implementation of this trading bloc. Nkomo is the Director (Legal) for International Trade and Investment in the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), South Africa.

The Kingdom of Eswatini is one of 55 member States of the African Union that signed the agreement on May 30, 2019 to establish AfCFTA.
Being one of the smaller African countries, with a population of around 1.1 million people, Eswatini is one of those states expecting to fight for a stake in the more than one billion people market to be provided by AfCFTA.

“In business you must maximise economies of scale. So for a small market, for example Zambia, it is nothing compared to the more than a billon person market that will be created when the AfCFTA is fully operationalised.  All of the businesses, even the small businesses, will benefit from having a much bigger market and this is key,” he said.

Nkomo said in operationalising the trading bloc, even in as much as the framework agreements might be there for the first phase, there was still need to have the actual exchange of tariff office to really ensure that there is increased market access in terms of goods.
“Also, I think what’s key is: how do we have an inclusive system that ensures the benefits are shared so that it’s not the most industrialised countries in the region that stand to benefit. Hence that is why we said we cannot just look at liberalisation for the sake of liberalisation,” he said.

Programme

The Director continued: “We also have to have a programme of cooperating to achieve regional industrial development, creating regional value chains, and ensuring that we have a programme of regional infrastructure development so that all countries, even the lesser developed of them, benefit from improved infrastructure and cooperation in the industrialisation efforts.”

He stated, therefore, it was not only about liberalising the markets but also ensuring that the system supported industrialisation as well as infrastructure development.

On another note, Nkomo said it was more important at the multilateral level for governments and leaders to continue to push for the finalisation of the Doha Mandate because it was all about mainstreaming development consideration into the working of the WTO. This was in reference to the trade negotiations among the WTO membership whose aim is to achieve major reform of the international trading system through the introduction of lower trade barriers and revised trade rules.

The work programme covers about 20 areas of trade.


    

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: