Rwanda will host the African Union Extra-ordinary summit on the signing and launch of African Continental Free Trade Area coming March 2018.
The summit which is slated on 21st March 2018, will bring together African Union Heads of States and Governments and will be dedicated to the signing of and launch of the Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as The Minister for the ministry of Trade and Industry, Vincent Munyeshyaka, informed the cabinet meeting held on Wednesday in Village Uragwiro.
The agreement which is due to be signed coming March is part of negotiations of the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) from the 30th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government that was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The establishment of negotiations of the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) was primarily adopted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2012, in the 18th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union and was created with many objectives among others:
• Create a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business persons and investments, and thus pave the way for accelerating the establishment of the Continental Customs Union and the African customs union.
• Expand intra African trade through better harmonization and coordination of trade liberalization and facilitation regimes and instruments across RECs and across Africa in general.
• Resolve the challenges of multiple and overlapping memberships and expedite the regional and continental integration processes.
• Enhance competitiveness at the industry and enterprise level through exploiting opportunities for scale production, continental market access and better reallocation of resources.
The Express News
