DODIA PUNCHES HOLES IN AFCTA

By Lumbiwe Mwanza

GOVERNMENTS in most African countries need to effectively collaborate and consult with the private sector with regard to signing any regional trade treaties, Private Sector Development Association (PSDA) chairperson Yusuf Dodia has said.

The 12 extraordinary summits of the African Union held in 2019 saw the successful launch of the operational phase of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA). The AfCTA billed as the biggest free trade accord in the world as it gathers 54 out of 55 African countries with Eritrea the only holdout.

And speaking to The Scoop, Mr. Dodia said that as much as the trade agreement has good benefits on the countries involved, implementation still remained short of the goal running into hurdles which included disagreements over tariff reductions and border closures at some instances.

“If leaders sign trade agreements with other neighboring countries without much consultation with the business community on the implications of the trade agreements, there would be fears of having neighboring products flooding the local market at the expense of locally-manufactured products. That is why consultations and engagements with the business community on any trade agreement were needed.

“Many African countries for example are fully engaged to be part of the AfCTA agreement but the decision to effectively implement such agreement is a political decision. Unfortunately, political decisions at times might be at variance with the commercial or business community,” Mr. Dodia said.

He further noted that African countries should learn from other implemented regional groupings that yielded tangible results with the view to better implement more workable modalities when it comes to regional trade.

He emphasized that African countries should support each other’s developments through trade.