Nairobi — A side-event titled "A human rights perspective on the CFTA" was co-organised by the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung on the margins of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Tenth Ministerial Conference.
The event addressed the questions of transparency and participation that participants agreed, are the key human rights principles and generally also good rules of thumb that can transform a trade negotiation from "a secret, exclusive process to an open, inclusive one that is acceptable to a wide range of stakeholders."
According to David Luke, Head of the African Trade Policy Centre, adopting these principles will be of utility to negotiators to assess and manage risk, help make trade-offs, balance trade and other obligations and ensure policy coherence between trade policy and other development policies.
The discussions noted that as the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) process moves forward and the negotiations begin, it will be useful to envision in advance a plan for transparent negotiations that is inclusive and participatory. "Average Africans need to be involved in the integration process more," stated Mr. Luke, adding that this requires more information on how it works, which will also help to offer greater transparency of the process and secure greater buy-in from the populace.
Participants agreed that going by the projections, there will be substantial increases in both industrial and agricultural intra-African trade and real improvements in wages and employment. "However, going by the experiences of other bilateral and regional free trade agreements, it is clear that with the potential positive impacts on human rights, there are also potential adverse impacts as a result of trade provisions and how they are designed and implemented," said Mr. Luke.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) are exploring ways to conduct a human rights impact assessment of the Continental Free Trade area agreement in Africa, focusing on agriculture, including food security and livelihoods, as well as employment.
By early 2016, a first scoping study of the assessment will be published. At this side-event, some of the study's analyses and recommendations were presented to the public for the first time.
