BY LAKACHEW ATINAFU
The limited cooperation and mobility of Africans in the continent forced the region to lag behind when it is compared to the other side of the world envisaging cooperation as a pragmatic constituent to cope with the current world. The AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) promises broader and deeper economic integration and would attract investment, boost trade, provide better jobs, reduce poverty, and increase shared prosperity in Africa.
Time demands to be on the alert and upgrade African cooperation in various endeavors to up line the continent as one of the influential part of the world in deciding the fate of its citizen and enable leaders to play vital role in the world economic activities and international diplomatic sphere. As one learnt from the experience of the world, countries are pursuing unity to catch up with mighty countries after clearly cognizing the success of the US and Russian federation.
Free trade agreements don’t just reduce and eliminate tariffs, they also help address behind-the-border barriers that would otherwise impede the flow of goods and services; encourage investment; and improve the rules affecting such issues as intellectual property, e-commerce and government procurement.
Africans with ample resource, latent, potential and huge human resources have been given issue conflict and aristocratic leaders assuming power for the interest of their neo-colonial lords.Being a symbol of African independence, Ethiopia has managed and vows the world in promoting African fraternity and resurrecting Pan Africanism. For instance, Air Transport market is believed to accelerate relation among Africans. The Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), a flagship project of the African Unions Agenda 2063 will accelerate the Africa Free Trade Area, said Adefunke Adeyemi, the African Civil Aviation Commission Secretary General.
Approached by the Ethiopian Herald, Adeyemi said the AU is specializing in the African Union so as to looking civil aviation industry across 54 countries. “We have an initiative called the single Africa market that was adopted by the African Head of State in 2015 building on the Yamasukuru decision in 1999 to liberalize the air transport market in Africa.” Indicating that Air transport has proven to be one of the key catalysts of development and social enablement, SAATM General Secretary said that Africa is a huge continent in terms of land mass and it is imperative to connect the continent properly for the integration in accordance with AU’s vision and objectives for an integrated, prosperous and united Africa.
The General Secretary said that the implementation of the single African air transport market will enable the acceleration of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area as air transport service will facilitate trading in goods, people and services to move faster and more efficiently across the continent of Africa. Citing that the Single Africa Air Transport Market, the Africa Continental Free Trade Area and the Free Movement Protocol of people and good look out how to connect and integrate Africa better, Adeyemi said adding that “We are fully support the theme of this AU head of state summit, accelerating the African free trade area and we believe our initiative to accelerate the single Africa air transport market can only support and accelerate this issue.” Asked about the challenge that the initiatives would face, Adeyemi said that the main challenge is making sure to actually implement it. “So it does not require decoration but practical implementation.”
The second important point is that, proper coordination of partners so as to work together, according to the general secretary.The third point is to harmonize the approach and reduce the fragmentation as well as the tendency of protectionism a nationalistic sentiment rather than continental. It is really important for the implementation of both the single Africa trade market and the continental free trade area, she stated. SAATM was officially launched on 28th January 2018 by Heads of African States and it is expected to bring about enhanced connectivity across the continent leading to sustainable development of the aviation and tourism industry with significant contribution to economic growth, inclusive job creation, poverty reduction, prosperity and integration across Africa.
The 12th Extraordinary summit of the African Union which was held in Niamey on the 7th of July 2019 was a momentous occasion for Africa, as it saw the successful launching of the operational phase of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The AfCFTA agreement was adopted and opened for signature on 21 March 2018 in Kigali and entered into force on 30 May 2019. The launch ceremony included “a roll call of honor” during which the 27 countries that had ratified the instruments of the AfCFTA as at 7th July 2019 were announced, and the 28 countries which had signed but not yet ratified were also announced with only one member state, Eritrea, yet to sign.
A commemorative plaque was unveiled to mark the occasion and the announcement of the selection of Ghana to host the AfCFTA secretariat was also made.According to earlier documents, the launch of the African Free Trade Agreement operational phase was characterized by the adoption of five key instruments:-
The Rules of Origin: A regime governing the conditions under which a product or service can be traded duty free across the region.
The Tariff concessions: It has been agreed that there should be 90% tariff liberalization and the deadline is 1st July 2020. Over a 10 year period with a 5 year transition, there will be an additional 7 % for “sensitive products” that must be liberalized.
The online mechanism on monitoring
Reporting and elimination of non-tariff barriers, NTBs: NTBs are a great hindrance to intra African trade whether physical, like poor infrastructure, or administrative like the behavior of customs officials. These are to be monitored with a view to ensuring they are eliminated.
The Pan-African payment and settlement system
To facilitate payments on time and in full, by ensuring that payments are made in local currency and at the end of the year there’ll be net settlements in foreign exchange. With the certainty of payments, there will be confidence in the system.
The African Trade Observatory
It is a trade information portal to address hindrances to trade in Africa due to lack of information about opportunities, trade statistics as well as information about exporters and importers in countries. The trade observatory will have all this information and other relevant data which will be provided by AU member states
The significance of the African Continental Free Trade Area
The AfCFTA will be the largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organization, given Africa’s current population of 1.2 billion people, which is expected to grow to 2.5 billion by 2050. Some of its expected benefits include:
Increasing trade among African countries which currently ranges between 15-18%.
Stimulate production through the development of regional value chains, to ensure that manufacturing, agro processing and other activities across the continent are stimulated to supply the market.
Strengthen the capacities of African companies to access and supply world markets.
Strengthen African’s economic and commercial diplomacy.
The Secretariat will facilitate the efficient conduct of business of the AfCFTA. It will develop the working program and the annual budget and implement the decisions of the Ministers and Heads of State and Government. Until the secretariat which is to be hosted in Ghana is fully operational, the AU Commission will be the interim secretariat.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2023
