Committee on Trade, Regional Cooperation and Integration recommends enhanced intra-African collaboration

Addis Ababa, 11 October 2007 (ECA)- The fifth session of the Committee on Trade, Regional Cooperation and Integration of the Economic Commission for Africa ended Wednesday October 10, with the adoption of recommendations urging African regional institutions to enhance their collaboration for the advancement of the continental integration agenda.

The outcomes of the meeting focus on the need for key regional integration actors including ECA, the African Union (AU) and the African Development Bank (ADB) to design a common framework in support of the rationalization strategies of the Regional Economic Communities, especially in their transformation into Free Trade Areas, Customs Unions and Common Markets.

This framework should facilitate the promotion of intra-African trade through the harmonization of trade protocols and policies including rules of origins, efficient management of corridors and the monitoring of non-tariff barriers.

The two-day meeting hosted by ECA also stressed the importance of a collective African voice in the WTO “Doha Round” of trade negotiations and Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) negotiations with European Union. Participants also called on the AU to continue to play its coordination role (with ECA's technical support) to ensure that the outcomes of the negotiations are in line with African development agenda. In addition, ECA was requested to undertake a study on the mobilization of domestic resources for financing regional infrastructure projects.

The policy recommendations of the 5 th session of the Committee on Trade Regional Cooperation and Integration will feed into the deliberations of the next Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, which is the legislative organ of the Economic Commission for Africa.

To read more, see the full CTRCI report