Africa-Press – Mauritius. The Minister of Land Transport and Light Rail, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Mr Alan Ganoo, participated in the 9th meeting of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Council of Ministers of Trade that was held from 25 to 26 July 2022 in Accra, Ghana.
The objective of the meeting was to notably, consider the progress made in the ongoing negotiations for Trade in Goods and Services, Competition Policy, Intellectual Property Rights, and Investment at the continental level.
It is recalled that the Agreement establishing the AfCFTA became effective on 1st January 2021 and works are still ongoing to operationalise the Agreement.
During his intervention at the meeting, Minister Ganoo presented a number of key issues as regards trade in services, the need for flexible regulations on Special Economic Zones, the urgency to conclude the outstanding rules of origin on textiles to boost the confidence of investors and provide a predictable framework for investment on the Continent.
During the meeting, African Ministers also deliberated on a number of issues including market access issues and the rules of origin. Tools, which were essential for countries to implement preferential trade under the AfCFTA trade regime, were also launched.
These included: the AfCFTA Website, the Rules of origin manual and the e-tariff book. As regards Trade in Goods, the Provisional Schedules of Concessions of Algeria and EAC Member States were adopted by the Council, which increased the total number of Provisional Schedules of Concessions under the AfCFTA from 29 to 36.
As for Trade in Services, the Council of Ministers further adopted the Schedules of Commitments of the Republic of Djibouti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Kingdom of Eswatini, the Kingdom of Lesotho, the Republic of Namibia, the Republic of Malawi, the Republic of Mauritius, the Republic of Seychelles, the Republic of Zambia, the Republic of Zimbabwe, and the combined Schedule of the East African Community Partner States.
The adoption of these Schedules of specific Commitments was done in order to enable Trade in Services among these countries in five priority sectors, namely Business Services; Communication Services; Financial Services; Transport Services and Tourism Services.
Furthermore, the September 2022 deadline to conclude phase II issues, which cover Investment, Competition Policy and Intellectual Property Right, was extended by six months.
A comprehensive work programme to work towards achieving the target of completing the negotiations was adopted by the Council of Ministers. In the context of the Meeting, Minister Ganoo met the following dignitaries: Mr.
Wamkele, secretary General of the AfCFTA; Mr. Yves Fernand Manfoumbi, Minister of Trade and Small and Medium Enterprises of the Republic of Gabon, who is the current Chairperson of the AfCFTA Council of Ministers; and Mr. Alan Kyerematen Ghana Minister of Trade and Industry.
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