Addis Ababa — The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) is partnering with TRALAC (Trade Law Centre for Southern Africa) to organize a session at the Trade and Development Symposium, a parallel event organized by ICTSD (International Center for Trade and Sustainable Development) in the margins of the Ninth WTO Ministerial Conference, to be held in Bali from 3-6 December 2013.
The session, which will take place on 5 December in Bali, will cover Africa's regional integration agenda and trade facilitation in the context of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA). The session will also feature an intervention by the African Union Commissioner for Trade and Industry, who will address the potential links between the establishment of the CFTA and Africa's transformation and economic diversification.
Highlights of the session include discussions on how the disproportionately high magnitude of trade-related costs stands as a major obstacle to intra- African trade, creating a competitive wedge that penalizes African producers. Hence, while reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers remains important, trade facilitation measures are equally crucial from a regional integration perspective. Further trade facilitation is included as one of the key priority areas of the African Union Action Plan towards boosting intra-African trade. Empirical analysis undertaken by the ECA show that the potential economic benefits of the CFTA are significant, both in terms of increasing intra-African trade and triggering real income growth. "If the CFTA is complemented by trade-facilitation measures, gains are expected to be considerably higher: the share of intra-African trade could double, from 10.2 percent in 2010 to 21.9 percent in 2022," says Stephen Karingi, Director of the Regional Integration and Trade Division. He adds that the analysis suggests that the establishment of the CFTA would support Africa's transformation, in so far as intra-African exports would be significantly more diversified than African exports to the rest of the world.
Further information on the Trade and Development Symposium can be found at http://www.ictsdsymposium.org/
