The Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies,
recently briefed the media on the outcomes of the AfCFTA
by the African Union Extraordinary Summit that took
place in Kigali, Rwanda, on 21 March 2018. Minister
Davies reiterated the importance of the AfCFTA for
Africa¡¦s development. ¡§The AfCFTA will boost
intra-Africa trade and create a bigger market of over
one billion people with a gross domestic product of $2,6
trillion that will unlock industrial development¡¨, said
Minister Davies. He emphasised that for the AfCFTA to
have broader benefits it had to be complemented by
cooperation on industrial and infrastructure
development, which were key components of the
development integration approach. This will ensure that
the African continent addresses productive and
supply-side constraints.
Furthermore, he stated that the AfCFTA was an economic
imperative to address the challenge of small and
fragmented markets. It is also being established at a
time when the multilateral trading system is facing
challenges.
Minister Davies attended an Informal World Trade
Organisation (WTO) Ministers Meeting on 19 and 20 March
2018 in New Delhi, India. He emphasised that Africa¡¦s
overriding economic objectives were to advance
integration and industrialisation across the continent
in line with Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want.
¡§We seek the policy space to pursue these objectives,
and the WTO should enable their achievement or at a
minimum not impede them,¡¨ said Davies. |