Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed |
Having
passed the cabinet stage, the deal will now proceed to the legislature
for a final vote before instruments of ratification could be deposited
with the AU chairperson.
“The decision is consistent with PM
Abiy’s vision of creating a closer & full regional integration –
where minds are open to ideas & markets are open to trade.
Ethiopia’s decision & track record of advocating Pan African causes
will bring to reality an integrated Africa,” office of the Prime
Minister, Abiy Ahmed, said.
With Ethiopia’s impending ratification
being the eighteenth, only four other ratifications will be required
for the pact to become effective.
Which countries have ratified?
So
far, West Africa has the most ratifications from Ivory Coast, Ghana,
Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo and Sierra Leone. While
in Central Africa, Chad and the Republic of Congo have ratified.
From
Southern Africa, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Namibia and South
Africa have ratified, while the AU has secured approvals from Uganda,
Kenya, and Rwanda in East Africa. Confirmation from Djibouti is pending.
No show from North Africa
While
all the North African countries signed the Kigali Declaration enacting
the AfCFTA, none of them is yet to ratify the agreement.
Seeing
that all ratifications have been from sub-Saharan Africa, the AU had
earlier challenged countries from Northern region to ratify the AfCFTA
agreement.
The spokesperson in the office of the AU chairperson,
Ebba Kalondo expressed her optimism ‘to have a North African country
among the historic 22 ratifications that will effectively bring the
AfCFTA into force’.
The African Continental Free Trade
Agreement (AfCFTA) is a trade agreement with signatories from 49 African
Union member states. The AfCFTA was signed in Kigali, Rwanda on March
21, 2018. However, signing the agreement does not yet establish the
AfCFTA. It only functions as an umbrella to which protocols and annexes
will be added. Once all documents are concluded and ratified by 22
states, the free trade area will formally exist.
Once it is
effective, AfCFTA aims to create a single continental market for goods
and services, boost intra-African trade and double trade flows by the
year 2022 with free movement of business
persons and investments, remove tariffs on 90 percent of goods, enhance
competitiveness at the industry and enterprise level, liberalize
services and tackle other barriers to intra-African trade.
With
only four approvals to go, there is an air of expectation that when the
Heads of State meet sometime next week, the AfCFTA will become
effective.
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Disclaimer: Comment expressed do not reflect the opinion of African Parliamentary News