Kampala — African countries must do more to maximize the benefits of trade for development, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), K.Y. Amoako, said today.

Addressing a three-day meeting of the Committee of Experts of the Conference of Africa's Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Kampala, Uganda, Amoako said that even though international action was vital to allow Africa to trade more successfully, 'domestic bottlenecks' at home must also be addressed.

Among the challenges were the need to strengthen trade capacity, find ways to replace lost income from lowered tariffs and identify new sources of finance for trade.

He also stressed the importance of regional integration for Africa, arguing that it would drive intra-African trade and stimulate export diversification.

Intra-African trade currently accounts for only 10 per cent of Africa's total trade.

In his opening address, Uganda's Finance Minister, Gerald Sendaula, agreed that Africa suffered from a poor enabling environment and lack of economic infrastructure, among other obstacles to change.

He said that having liberalized its external trade regime and introduced macroeconomic reforms and privatization, Uganda was now winning more foreign investment and managing to diversify into non-traditional exports.

However Amoako warned African governments not to liberalize trade 'blindly' because, in many cases, he said, 'openness has not translated into growth.' Instead he called for the adoption of dynamic trade policies going beyond protection and revenue maximization and driven by strategic development objectives.

On international trade negotiations, Amoako said there was now recognition that more effort and urgency were needed if 'the laudable objectives of the Doha Round' were to be achieved in the wake of the failure of the WTO talks in Cancun, Mexico, last year.

He said that the recent offer by the EU Trade and Agriculture Commissioners to eliminate EU export subsidies if the United States would do the same had added momentum to the trade negotiating process.

Minister Sendaula called on Africa to marshall all efforts to negotiate the removal of unfair international trade practices and build capacity in the area of trade negotiations in order to strengthen Africa's negotiating approach.