By Andrew Alamadi, 17 April 2006
The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, has reaffirmed the importance ECA attaches to trade and its commitment to working with partners to increase Africa 's gains from trade. He made the call in a speech to the 4 th Ordinary Session of the African Union's Ministers of Trade, which was delivered on his behalf by Mr. Josue Dione, director of ECA's sustainable development division. The Ministers on 14 April in Nairobi , Kenya .
In the speech, Mr. Janneh said the experience from Asia shows that dynamic trade policies can lead to complete transformation of economies. He said: “this experience strengthens our conviction that Africa can also be on to something big if trade could be allowed to play its rightful role. It is for this reason, at the ECA, assuring development gains from international trade and the trading system is an overarching objective of our work.”
The ministers are meeting at a time when pressure is mounting to conclude the World Trade Organization negotiations on modalities for agriculture and non-agricultural market access. The deadline for the negotiations, set at the Hong Kong WTO ministerial, is the end of April.
The Ministers will consider recommendations made by African experts, who also met in Nairobi from 12 – 13 April. During the experts meeting, ECA made presentations on the results of its simulations on the impact of agreements on agriculture and NAMA on Africa , and a presentation on regional integration and rationalization of regional economic communities.