AfCFTA takes giant steps towards unified trade policy for Africa

Wamkele Mene, Secretary General for the African Continental Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) Secretariat, says the Agreement is set to adopt a single trade policy for the African continent to enhance intra-continental trade.

He said the adoption of regional trade and investment protocols reflected the secretariat’s intention to align member nations’ trade policies.

Mene was speaking at the 13th Ghana Economic Forum held in Accra and hosted by the Business and Financial Times.

The forum was on the theme: “Unlocking opportunities and re-engineering Ghana’s economic model for sustainable development.”

“We now have protocols for trading goods, competition, investment, and intellectual property,” he said. 

He said other protocols included the Protocol on Dispute Settlement, which would resolve trade and investment disputes among member nations. 

“All of the measures implemented by the secretariat point towards a unified trade policy for the continent,” he added.

He said these protocols would be approved by the assembly of member states in February 2025 to signify the unification of the trade policies of the continent. 

The Secretary-General said Africa was a net importer of food from countries across the globe despite having the highest arable land in the world.

In the year 2020, he said, the continent imported an excess of $50 billion worth of staple foods used for breakfast, including cereal and grains. 

He said the imports consequentially exposed 60 per cent of the continent’s population to food insecurity and inflation.

He said the African Union was working to introduce policy measures, including promoting trade between African countries to share agricultural resources and products, in the bid to reduce food importation.

Mr. Mene said Africa’s economic progress hinged on the economic model implemented by the member states. 

He called for policies directed at improving the industrial capacity of member states for African countries to reduce the dependence on imports. 

The Secretary-General said, for instance, in the year 2019, the continent imported $16.5 billion worth of pharmaceutical products while the continent had the capability to produce these products. 

He called for urgent steps to improve the capacity of member states to produce pharmaceutical products. 

Therefore, the Secretary-General said the Africa Centre for Disease Control (CDC) has been mandated by the heads of state of the continent to champion efforts to improve Africa’s productive capacity in the area of pharmaceuticals.

He said the Heads of State in Africa had now mobilised over $1 million for Africa’s CDC to improve the pharmaceutical capability of Member States.

The Secretary-General said through the establishment of the vaccine manufacturing company, African countries, including Ghana, Rwanda, and Senegal, had taken giant steps in improving their pharmaceutical capacity on the continent.