Posted on July, 19, 2016 at 09:35 am
President Uhuru Kenyatta has called for the establishment of a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) to promote intra-African trade.
Mr Kenyatta said boosting intra-African trade will accelerate continental integration, develop larger markets and foster greater competition that supports poverty reduction, growth and sustainable development.
“Equally, pooling economies and markets through regional integration will provide a sufficiently wide economic and market space to make new economies of scale. I must urge all of you present today to support it when it is brought before us for adoption,” the President said.
He told the African Union Summit which concluded in Kigali yesterday that while 40 per cent of North American trade and 63 per cent of trade by countries in Western Europe is with others in their respective regions, only about 12 per cent of African trade is with other African nations.
Mr Kenyatta said the the benefits of the CFTA include job creation in the public and private sectors, increased food security through reduction of protection rate on trade in agricultural and competitiveness of Africa’s industrial products.
The CFTA idea was mooted in 2012 when African leaders held a similar meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where various participants questioned its feasibility.
The leaders later endorsed the plan to set up the CFTA by 2017 as a key component of the AU’s strategy to boost trade within the region by at least 25-30 per cent in the next decade.
Source: Business Daily Africa