Kenyan Deputy President, William Ruto, said African leaders from three economic trading blocs are set to sign a tripartite agreement on Wednesday ahead of the launch of the proposed continental wide free trade area.
Ruto, who would be representing President Uhuru Kenyatta, said this on Tuesday in Nairobi, before leaving for the meeting in Cairo, Egypt.
He said the aim of the meeting was to make it easier for movement of goods, people and services among African countries.
He said: “The meeting will witness the signing of Tripartite Free Trade Area agreement that will bring together member countries to promote economic and social development in the region by creating a single market with free movement of goods and services.
“Africa’s regional economic bodies, East African Community and the Southern African Development Community will be the building blocks of the Africa free trade area, whose instruments to launch of the Tripartite Free Trade Area will be signed in Egypt.”
Ruto said the agreement would require member states to, among other things, expedite the process toward operationalisation of the COMESA-EAC-SADC tripartite Free trade Area by removing bottlenecks to trade.
He said: “Member countries will also be required to finalise outstanding issues and commence phase two negotiations covering trade in services, cooperation in trade and development, competition policy, intellectual property rights and cross border movements.
“The countries will be asked to cooperate on customs matters and implement trade facilitation measures.”
Ruto said states that would sign the Tripartite Agreement would therefore initiate the legislative process of ratification, while those that do not sign would be given a specific timeframe to do so.
He added that the agreement would come into force once ratification is attained by two thirds of the 26 states.
The launch of the TFTA was the first phase of implementing a developmental regional integration strategy that places high priority on infrastructure development, industrialization and free movement of business persons.
The vice president said in order for the Tripartite FTA to realize inclusive and equitable growth, officials agree on the need for expeditious formulation and implementation of a regional industrial programme.
He assured that the business community would benefit from an improved and harmonised trade regime, which would reduce the cost of doing business, as a result of elimination of overlapping trade regimes due to multiple memberships.
The ministers and their representatives from the 26 countries in the three economic communities have also finalised the programme that would guide the Tripartite Heads of State and Government in launching the grand Free Trade Area on Wednesday.
Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, would take over as chairperson of the Tripartite Summit, a seat currently held by President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
The FTA was originally endorsed at the Tripartite Summit of Heads of State and Government in Johannesburg in June 2011.
The tripartite was expected to create a single market of approximately 600 million people and account for about 58 per cent of the Africa’s Gross Domestic Product.
The enlarged FTA would include Libya, Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Others are Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros, Seychelles, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland.
Xinhua/NAN.
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