ADDIS ABABA- Future achievements of countries in Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will depend on competency in terms of price and quality of products they provide to the market, Ministry of Trade (MoT) said.
Fikru Tadesse Bilateral and Regional Trade Relations and Negotiation Director at the Ministry told The Ethiopian Herald that though AfCFTA facilitates market for member countries, the reduction of tariff could lead to a competition, which depends on price and product quality.
He said Ethiopia is engaged in preparatory tasks to step up its competency in the free trade area through negotiations, panel forums and awareness raising seminars. According to him, all stakeholders and governmental structures are participating in this preparatory job.
Meanwhile, “Since we are new to a free trade area system, it is better to work very cautiously. We are also engaged in bilateral and regional trade negotiations to seek legal market with reliable price in preferential and cooperative agreements. So far, we have signed 19 bilateral trade agreements with several countries throughout the globe.
The recent agreement was the one we signed with Sudan. It is possible to increase the number of agreements with more countries. However, finding extra market is always the priority and the process requires deep assessment on the economic structure, trade relations, packages, market opportunities and amount tariff of export commodities to the candidate country,” he said.
Currently, Ethiopia’s trade volume in Africa is not more than ten percent while the import-export balance, which has been based in Europe, is now moving to Asian countries, according to Fikru.
In addition, new agricultural export commodities like Chickpea are also reported to have received certain market opportunity mostly in Asian countries. Chickpea has emerged as the country’s third most important export commodity.
The Ethiopian Herald, July 14/2019
BY HENOK TIBEBU
