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Africa to launch continental free trade negotiations
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IANS | 29 May, 2015
African countries will launch the Continental Free Trade Agreement
(CFTA) negotiations at the upcoming African Union (AU) Summit scheduled
for mid-June this year, it was announced.
The CFTA will be the main topic at the 25th AU Summit scheduled for June 14-15 in Johannesburg, Xinhua reported on Thursday.
The
CFTA will create a market of over 1.3 billion people with a combined
GDP of over $2 trillion, Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe said at a
press briefing in Cape Town after a fortnightly cabinet meeting.
Radebe
said the CFTA would build on the Tripartite Free Trade Area (FTA) and
progress achieved in the regional economic communities.
It will also give traders and investors access to a growing market and provide a basis for enhanced intra-Africa trade, he said.
At
its 18th session in Addis Ababa in January 2012, the assembly of heads
of state and government of the AU adopted a decision that reflected the
strong political commitment of African leaders to accelerate and deepen
the continent's market integration.
The leaders agreed on a road-map for establishing the CFTA by the indicative date of 2017.
As
highlighted in the road-map, the CFTA is set to build on the FTA
negotiations, which would create a free trade area among the 26
countries of the East African Community (EAC), Common Market for Eastern
and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern African Development
Community (SADC).
The AU wants the agreement to be fully
implemented by 2016. The 26 tripartite countries represent close to 60
percent of the AU's GDP and population, and an FTA among them would
constitute a fundamental building block for the CFTA.
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