ADDIS ABABA, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on Thursday urged African countries and pan African institutions to exert concerted efforts so as to fully harness the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
The statement was made by Stephen Karingi, Director of ECA's Regional Integration and Trade Division, who stressed that "much work now needs to be done now that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement is in force."
The ECA director also urged African countries to swiftly discuss trade modalities as the imminent continental free trade pact as AfCFTA is scheduled to start operations during the upcoming African leaders' summit, slated for July 7 in Niamey, Niger.
"Trade forums, besides providing platforms for member States, business communities, researchers and others to access cutting-edge evidence-based policy analysis and briefs, methodologies and tools to support shared gains from the AfCFTA, will allow the region to discuss what needs to be put in place in terms of policies to ensure every African benefits," Karingi was quoted as saying.
According to the ECA, regional trade forums on the operationalization of the African free trade accord should focus on boosting competitiveness and job creation, competition and intellectual property protocols, broadening policy space and taking advantage of flexibilities.
The regional trade forum also provide opportunities for stakeholders, from policy makers to commercial actors, from academics to civil society organizations, to explore the extent to which the AfCFTA can contribute to efforts to address Africa's unique trade and competitiveness challenges, according to the ECA.
According to the African Union (AU), the African free trade pact, which was approved by 22 countries last month, meeting the threshold for it to take effect, has laid the foundation for what could be the world's largest free trade zone by the number of participating countries, covering more than 1.2 billion people with a combined gross domestic product of 2.5 trillion U.S. dollars.
Once operational, the African free trade accord is projected to boost the level of intra-Africa trade by more than 52 percent by the year 2020, according to the ECA.
