Cotonou - Benin — A meeting of officials of Chambers of Commerce of ECOWAS Member States is underway in Cotonou to draw up a classification system for products to be promoted during the biennial regional trade fair and whose production and export will be encouraged to stimulate national and regional economies.

The two-day meeting, which opened on Wednesday, 17th October 2012, will identify agricultural and industrial products specific to member states with a view to drawing up a list of the products whose exhibition the ECOWAS Commission will support during the regional fair. The aim is to help realize one of the objectives of the fair - showcasing products that are specific to the region.

The Commission’s Acting Director of the Trade, Dr. Gbenga Obideyi said this approach will help the region correct the current situation whereby the fair has become a platform for the display of products from outside the region thereby defeating its primary objective of exposing products from the region for the purpose of stimulating intra-community trade. “The Chamber of Commerce officials will help us identify products for which their countries are known and which will be displayed in specially designated pavilions to be sponsored by ECOWAS as part of this strategy to encourage trade and export of these products,” the director explained.

He said that this was the only way to ensure that products exhibited during the fair reflected the diversity of the region’s products and which could be supported in furtherance of an export-led economic development of the region. This strategy will be experimented during the next ECOWAS trade fair to be hosted by Ghana at in Accra between 24th October and 4th November 2013 under the theme: “Regional Integration through Trade.”