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African Continental Free Trade Area: Movement of goods rescheduled for January 1.
African Continental Free Trade Area: Movement of goods rescheduled for January 1.
The commencement of the free movement of goods in Africa postponed from July 1, 2020 has been rescheduled for January 1, 2021.The original date was rendered untenable by the Coronavirus pandemic, African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) officials said.
But speaking during a webinar organised by the Africa CEO Forum, AfCFTA Secretary General, Wamkele Mene, said the new target date would be subject to the disease’s spread on the continent.
Instead of just waiting, the officials thought it wise to establish a plan. “We have made a recommendation that in the next six months the free trade zone could start trading but subject to the pandemic itself,” Wamkele Mene said. The plan to launch the free movement of goods seems paradoxical to the World Health Oganisation’s prediction that the Covid-19 cases in the continent will continue to rise until a vaccine is found.
The AfCFTA Secretary General, who is essentially an advisor to government leaders on issues related to the AfCFTA, regretted that majority of nations in Africa are either in partial lockdowns or their borders are still closed. He said the present dispensation complicates the establishment of the trade bloc. They worked with the hope that things would fall in order sooner than later. “It is not credible for us to say that we are trading from July 1 when we know that trucks at borders are lined up 40 to 50 kilometers,” he added.
It should be recalled that, the Africa Continental Free-Trade Zone would be the largest new economic bloc after the World Trade Organization created in 1994. Close to 1.3 billion people would be brought together when the trade area is established. Business done by people in the area amounts to about $ 3.4 trillion. “The onset of the pandemic halted negotiations and trading between member countries during April and May and this made the July 1 date impractical”, Mene said. He added that he hoped member countries would conclude negotiations on tariffs over the next six months.
Culled from Cameroon Insider