Ministers to take stock of Africa's trade, regional cooperation and integration agenda

ECA Press Release No. 14/2007

Addis Ababa, 5 October (ECA)- Ministers and senior officials from over 40 African countries, the African Union and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) will convene at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Africa next week to deliberate on state of the regional integration agenda.

Discussions at the 5th Meeting of the Committee on Trade, Regional Cooperation and Integration, which takes place in Addis Ababa on 8-10 October, will focus on addressing Africa's integration challenges at the national, subregional and continental levels.

Particular attention will be paid to the issue of intra-African trade, which remains very low. In that regard, delegates will discuss how to overcome the key infrastructure and policy hurdles to improving trade within Africa and provide practical suggestions on how to significantly increase intra-African trade in the short and medium term.

Another critical issue of concern is the lack of progress in the international trade arena because trade with the outside world continues to remain a major component of Africa's total trade. The meeting will therefore also examine the latest developments in the WTO negotiations as well as the discussions on the economic partnership arrangements with Europe, and assess Africa's realistic expectations and outcomes from these global trade talks.

Additionally, the Committee will examine matters relating to ECA's programme activities in support of trade and regional integration in Africa.

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Background: ECA is mandated by General Assembly to set up a number of sectoral committees such as Committee on Trade and Regional Cooperation and Integration . These committees are expected to meet on a biennial basis to review problems and issues pertaining to their respective development sectors, formulate policies and strategies to address Africa's development challenges, and advise on sectoral work priorities to be reflected in the work programme of the Commission. The outcome of the meetings of the committees are to feed into the deliberations of the annual meetings of Commission's principal legislative organ, the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and its Committee of Expert.

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