AfCFTA’s first deal to go ahead, despite virus complications

Business Day | 11 March 2020

AfCFTA’s first deal to go ahead, despite virus complications

by Leanne de Bassompierre (Bloomberg)

Abidjan — The coronavirus outbreak is unlikely to scupper a July 1 target for the first commerce under the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AfCFTA), even if meetings to iron out details are being canceled, said the zone’s most senior official.

Cross-border travel bans by some governments, as well as restrictions imposed by companies on their employees, have led to conferences being canceled. The Africa CEO Forum, which was scheduled for this week in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, was postponed at short notice due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“I don’t think anybody would have anticipated that the virus would be so disruptive to the entire global economy,” South African Wamkele Mene, secretary-general of the AfCFTA, said by phone. He was due to attend the forum in Abidjan.

The virus “is a big issue to take into consideration”, Mene said. “But, you know, I think we will have to find a way. We’re going to have to find a way.”

Mene has the gargantuan task of getting 54 countries to agree on trade issues. He will move to Ghana, the secretariat or permanent office of the trade zone, at the end of the month to officially start work on April 1. Other aspects of the job will include helping member states implement the agreement and establishing a dispute settlement mechanism.

If it wasn’t for the virus and the ensuing travel restrictions, discussions around trade concessions and rules of origin may have been further along and could have been concluded by May. That’s when SA is scheduled to host an extraordinary African Union (AU) summit to finalise the modalities of the agreement.

“The rules of origin are 90% ready,” Mene said. Rules on automobiles, sugar and cotton haven’t yet been agreed and are still subject to talks, he said.

Legally, the agreement is already in force, but to make the July 1 deadline for the start of trade in goods and services under the new tariff rules, these details need to be rubber-stamped before the May summit as part of phase one of the process.

Said Mene, “The summit will have to look closely in terms of how we how deal with the disruption.”

source : Business Day

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